Johann Wilhelm Adolf Kirchhoff (January 6, 1826 - February 26, 1908), German classical scholar and epigraphist, was born in Berlin.

In 1865 he was appointed professor of classical philology in the university of his native city.

He is the author of:

• Die Homerische Odyssee (1859), putting forward an entirely new theory as to the composition of the Odyssey
• edition of Plotinus (1856)
• edition of Euripides (1855 and 1877-1878)
• edition of Aeschylus (1880)
• Hesiod (Works and Days, 1881)
• Xenophon, On the Athenian Constitution (3rd ed., 1889)
• Uber die Entstehungszeit des Herodotischen Geschichtswerkes (2nd ed., 1878)
• Thukydides und sein Urkundenmaterial (1895).

The following works are the result of his epigraphical and palaeographical studies:

• Die Umbrischen Sprachdenkmdler (1851)
• Das Stadtrecht von Bantia (1853), on the tablet discovered in 1790 at Oppido near Banzi, containing a plebiscite relating to the municipal affairs of the ancient Bantia
• Das Gotische Runenalphabet (1852)
• Die Fränkischen Runen (1855)
• Studien zur Geschichte des Griechischen Alphabets (4th ed., 1887).

The second part of vol. iv. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum (1859, containing the Christian inscriptions) and vol. i. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum (1873, containing the inscriptions before 403) with supplements thereto (vol. iv. pts. 13, 1877-1891) are edited by him.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.