WLISLOCKI, Heinrich Adalbert von. Kronstadt (now Braşov) 9.7.1856 — Klosdorf bei Kleinkopisch (now Şona in Translivania) 19.2.1907. Austrian Gypsy Scholar. His father was Polish-Austrian tax collector and mother a German of Transylvania, educated in Kronstadt. In 1875-79 studied at Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca), mainly Germanic, but also Sanskrit (Brassai). Ph.D. 1879 (diss. on Edda). Worked as tutor in 1883-90 in Mühlbach (Sebeş), but also eagerly collected gipsy material. Also worked as translator. In last years, from 1899, suffered of mental problems and of weakening eyesight. Married Rosa Saric, herself a gipsy, divorced, then remarried Fanny Dörfler, a Hungarian folklorist.
He was relatively unprejudiced for his time, lived long periods with the nomadic Transylvanian gipsies and knew intimately their life.
Publications: Diss. Hapax legomena im Atlamál. 1879, then publ. in Z. für vgl. Litteratur.
– Die Sprache der transylvanischen Zigeuner. Grammatik. Wörterbuch. 2+128 p. Lp. 1884.
– Märchen und Sagen der Transsilvanischen Zigeuner. 18+139 p. B. 1886; Volksdichtungen der siebenbürgischen und südungarischen Zigeuner. 16+431 p. Vienna 1890.
– Vom wandelnden Zigeunervolke. Bilder aus dem Leben der Siebenbürger Zigeuner, Geschichtliches, Ethnologisches, Sprache und Poesie. 7+390 p. Hamburg 1890.
– Some other books and numerous articles, also on Transylvanian Saxons, Hungarians and Armenians, especially in Ungar. Revue, Z. für vgl. Litteratur, JGLS, Z. f. deutsche Philologie and ZDMG.
Sources: Briefly in Bethlenfalvy 1980, 21; H.F. Helmolt, JGLS N.S. 1, 1908, 193-197; German Wikipedia with photo.
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