John Ihre was born, in 1707, in Lund, where his father was a professor of theology, a talented, witty and learned man. The young Ihre lost his father in 1720, after which time his uncle, Archbishop Steuchius of Upsala, had charge of his education. He later studied modern languages at the University of Jena, made the acquaintance of the contemporary philologists of Holland, and also studied at the universities of London, Oxford and Paris. After an absence of three years he returned, soon to be connected with the University of Upsala, where he remained for forty-two years as professor of rhetoric and politics. Ihre was a liberal, outspoken man, who was severely censured for his opinions upon political and religious subjects, once by the Riksdag being sentenced to pay fines and receiving a warning from the chancellor of the university. When the clergy upon another occasion warned the philosophers not to mix in theological subjects, Ihre defended himself in the following terms in a letter to the chancellor, Count Charles Gustavus Tessin. “Gracious lord! I teach _eloquentiam_, _politicam_ and the states, with all things pertaining to them. To become a heretic I possess neither genius nor stupidity enough, less an evil purpose. Therefore I am willing to forego all theology, if only an allowance of it be made large enough for my private practice and edification in Christianity. I never intended to go any further.”
Ihre left religion and politics alone, and received many high distinctions in return for his great scientific merits. When ennobled, he kept his old family name, stating that he was “somewhat known abroad under the name of Ihre,” while if he changed it to Gyllenbiorn or Vargstierna, it would take “some time to announce this new disguise.” He was renowned for his ready wit, and wielded a considerable influence in academic circles. Ihre was satisfied with his position and his science, and was not willing to exchange them for a political career.
Ihre was led to the study of the Teutonic languages in their oldest forms by his desire to find a consistent spelling and correct understanding of the words in his own language. He was desirous of freeing it from foreign words, but only when those substituted were as expressive and comprehensible as the old. Ihre was a pioneer in the field of dialect lexicographers, publishing the outline of a Swedish dialect dictionary in 1766, and wrote a number of works pertaining to the historic forms of Gothic, Lappish, Finnish and Old Norse. Special importance is due to his epoch-making research concerning the language of the Codex Argenteus. He once for all settled the controversy, proving the Codex to contain the Gothic Bible translation of Bishop Wulfila against the assertions of M. Lacroze of Berlin, who claimed that it was written in Frankish. In regard to the Edda of Snorre Sturleson, he declared it to be intended as an introductory study of poesy, a handbook of poetics for young scalds, an opinion which has been fully established in a much later time. By these and other theories Ihre attained a much higher standpoint as a scientific critic than his contemporaries. He spoke of the resemblance between the Teutonic and the classical languages, without being able to find the reasons. He even to some extent anticipated the great discovery which after its formulator has been called Grimm’s Law, by pointing out “a certain regularity of consonant shift” in the Teutonic languages.