Gottfried Mascov was born in
Danzig. At that time, Danzig was a large
semi-autonomous trading city on the Baltic coast of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city at this time was multi-cultural: Mascov's family was prominent in the German speaking merchant community, his grandparents having fled to Danzig from the west during the
Thirty Years' War. Gottfried Mascov's elder brother, remembered as a
jurist and historian, was . The boys lost their parents before reaching adulthood, and responsibility for their upbringing fell to Reinhold Schuhmacher, a maternal relative, who attended to their education. In 1716 he enrolled at the
University of Leipzig where his brother, by this time, had received his first degree and held a teaching position. In 1728 he received a licentiate in law and in 1729 a doctorate in philosophy from Altdorf. His colleague emerged with a badly scratched face, and a disciplinary enquiry against Mascov ended up condemning his intemperate conduct and dismissing him from his post. He now turned to his brother, whose entire academic career had unfolded at
Leipzig, where by now he also held important court appointments and a post as
State librarian. Gottfried Mascov returned to Leipzig, now as a
senior academic ("Privatdozent") for Roman Law and Natural Law, later, between 1748 and 1760, serving as a full professor at
the university. Gottfried Mascov died at Leipzig on 5 October 1760. ==An appreciation==