Palthen was born in
Wolgast, a port in what was then
Swedish Pomerania. His father was Johann Palthen, a senior official at the court, and his mother, born Dorothea Hoppe, also came from one of the town's leading families. The boy attended the
Gymnasium (school) in
Greifswald, moving on to
Greifswald University where he studied between 1688 and 1691. Palthen was also able to accompany Mayer during an extensive tour that took in the
Netherlands,
Denmark and the
Swedish mainland. During his stay at
Oxford, in 1698, Palthen got hold of a copy of
Tatian's
Gospel harmony, based on a manuscript of an
Old High German translation attributed to
Franciscus Junius. He managed to obtain financial backing from (effectively the Swedish viceroy in Swedish Pommerania) to have the work printed at Greifswald in 1706. As well as his lectures, Palthen devoted his scholarly endeavours at Greifswald to German history, Natural and State Law and the work of
Hugo Grotius. He also devoted time and meticulous care to the collection and archiving of numerous
"Res Gestae" and other source documents which, because of his work three centuries ago, survive today in archival collections in
Greifswald,
Stralsund and
Putbus. ==References==