Johann Georg von Lori (17 July 1723 – 23 March 1787) was a Bavarian high official, lawyer and historian.

[1] The wealthy Augsburg patrician and later mayor Jakob Wilhelm Benedikt von Langenmantel was one of the financial sponsors of his education.

Lori went on to the University of Ingolstadt, where Professor Johann Adam von Ickstatt recognized his great ability and in 1746 made him a legal tutor.

[5] He met the Prince of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, with whom he discussed the rationalist philosophy of Christian Wolff and Johann Gottlieb Heineccius.

He heard there of the collection of documents from the Bibliotheca Palatina that Maximilian I had sent to Pope Gregory XV after the fall of Heidelberg.

The Jesuits, who dominated the university, confiscated a copy of Johann Paul Reinhard's "Introduction to the history of the states of Europe" on the grounds that it was heretical, and banned him from teaching.

In July 1750 he wrote to his friend Andreas Felix von Oefele complaining of the lack of true scholarship at the university.

He then began to plan the establishment of an academy similar to those he had seen on North Germany, based on the work of the earlier Parnassus boicus society of Munich.

The first president was the Chairman of the Mint and Mining Commission, Sigmund von Haimhausen, who brought the society to the attention of the court and the Elector.

On 28 March 1759 Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, signed the founding charter, which was confirmed on 25 June 1759.

After the Elector Maximilian III Joseph died on 30 December 1777, the Austrians raised claims over territories in Lower Bavaria.