Friedrich Christian Carl Heinrich Münter (14 October 1761 – 9 April 1830) was a German-Danish scholar, theologian, and Bishop of Zealand from 1808 until his death. His name has also been recorded as Friederich Münter.
In 1791, he married Maria Elisabeth Krohn (1771–1842). Their first son, Balthasar (1794–1867), was born in Copenhagen and became a pastor.[2] Their second son, Carl Vilhelm Theodor Münter (1798–1841), was a public servant.[3] Their daughter, Maria Frederica Franzisca Münter (1796-1871), went by the name "Fanny." In 1815, Fanny married Jacob Peter Mynster who went on to become bishop of Zealand four years after Münter's death.[4]
Münter collated and described manuscripts housed in notable Italian libraries. He collated Codex Nanianus for the first time and he sent some extracts from this codex to Andreas Birch. Birch used these extracts in his edition of the text of the four Gospels in Greek.[6] Münter also studied inscriptions from Persepolis, and played an important early part in the decipherment of cuneiform scripts. He discovered that the words in the inscriptions were divided from one another by an oblique wedge (𐏐) and that the monuments must belong to the age of Cyrus and his successors. One word (𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹), which occurs without any variation towards the beginning of each inscription, he correctly inferred to signify "king".[7][8] These findings were fundamental to the decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform by Grotefend in 1802.
Münter's main work is "Religion der Karthager" (Copenhagen, 1816). The second edition (1821) was expanded and included new research. Other works include "Sendschreiben an Kreuzer über Sardische Idole" (Copenhagen, 1822), "Der Tempel der himmlichen Göttin zu Paphos" (Copenhagen, 1824), and "Religion der Babylonier" (Copenhagen, 1827). Some small archaeological works of Münter were included in his "Antiquarische Abhandlungen" (Copenhagen, 1816).
On numismatics Münter wrote: "De numo plumbео Zenobiae reginae Orientis et aeneo Palmyreno" (Petersburg, 1823) and "Ueber die Münzen der Vandalischen Könige von Karthago" ("Antiquarische Abhandlungen", p. 301).
Münter, Frederik (1800a) "Undersögelser om de Persepolitanske Inscriptioner. Förste Afhandling." (Investigations of the inscriptions of Persepolis. First part.), Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers-Selskabs Skrivter (Writings of the Royal Danish Society of Science), 3rd series, 1 (1) : 253–292. [in Danish]
Münter, Frederik (1800b) "Undersögelser om de Persepolitanske Inscriptioner. Anden Afhandling." (Investigations of the inscriptions of Persepolis. Second part.), Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers-Selskabs Skrivter (Writings of the Royal Danish Society of Science), 3rd series, 1 (2) : 291–348. [in Danish] On p. 339, Münter presents the Old Persian word for "king" written in cuneiform.
Münter, Frederik (1925–1949). Rasmussen, Alexander; Andreasen, Øjvind (eds.). Frederik Münter: et Mindeskrift. Vol. 1–7. Haase.
Perrone, Nico (2006). La Loggia della Philantropia: un religioso danese a Napoli prima della rivoluzione con la corrispondenza massonica e altri documenti [The Philantropia Lodge: A Danish Priest in Naples before the Revolution with Masonic Papers and Other Documents] (in Italian). Palermo: Sellerio. ISBN9788838921414.