thumb|right|Johann Karl Otto Ribbeck

Johann Carl Otto Ribbeck (23 July 1827, in Erfurt – 18 July 1898, in Leipzig) was a German classical scholar. His works are mostly confined to criticisms of Latin poetry and to classical character sketches.

Biography

He was born at Erfurt in Saxony. In early life he went to Berlin, where he studied under Karl Lachmann, Franz Bopp and August Böckh, and from there to Bonn where he was a close student of the methods of Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker and Friedrich Ritschl. Having received his degree in Berlin and traveled for a year through Italy, in 1853 he returned to Berlin, where he entered Böckh's school. He then taught at Elberfeld and Bern. Having held professorial appointments at Kiel and Heidelberg, he succeeded Ritschl in the chair of classical philology at Leipzig, where he died.