KLATT, Johannes Emil Otto. Filehne, Posen (now Wieleń, Poland) 31.10.1852 — Bonn 27.8.1903. German Indologist. Son of postmaster Friedrich Michael Klatt and Caroline Fiedler. After gymnasium in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) from 1868 studies of Indology under Weber at Berlin (also classical philology and history). Ph.D. 1873 Halle (A. F. Pott). Worked from 1874 as Assistant, from 1880 Kustos and from 1882 Librarian in the Royal Library in Berlin. In 1870-76 also stenographer at Prussian Herrenhaus. In the 1870s also learned Arabic, Syriac, Samaritan and Turkish in order to cope better with the Oriental collections of the Library. In the beginning of 1892 a sudden brain disease hospitalized him until his early death, first in Berlin, but soon in Bonn in a private psychiatric hospital. Married 1887 Margarete Patzig (1861–1928), two son (the pedagogue Fritz Klatt, 1888–1945, and the painter Albert Klatt, 1892–1970).
From c. 1882 on Klatt was working on a great Jaina Onomasticon, meant to be more than 1000 pages, but the work was interrupted by the illness, from which he never recovered, and only a specimen of 55 pages was published. The manuscript remains and is now worked upon by P. Flügel’s team. Their studies have also shifted and cleared up the confused accounts of his life. Thus, e.g. his friend Leumann in 1894 calls him on 1894 the late.
Publications: Diss. De trecentis Cāṇakyae poetae indici sententis. 6+72 p. B. 1873.
– Ed. & transl. “Dhanapâla’s Ṛishabhapañcâçikâ”, ZDMG 33, 1879, 445-477.
– “Die Jaina-Hss. der K. Bibliothek zu Berlin”, ZDMG 33, 1879, 478-483; “Indische Drucke”, ZDMG 35, 1881, 189-206; “Extracts from the Historical Records of the Jainas”, IA 11, 1882, 245-256; “Eine apokryphe Paṭṭâvalî der Jainas”, Festgruss Böhtlingk 1888, 54-59.
– “Indien”, Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft 1, 1878 (1880), I. Alterthum, 1-8 & III. Neue Zeit, 598-601; Ibid. 2, 1879 (1881), I:1-26 & III:236-241; Ibid. 3, 1880 (1883), I:1-35 & III:216-226; Ibid. 4, 1881 (1885), I:37-60 & III:221-228.
– “Islam”, Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft 1, 1878 (1880), II. Mittelalter, 335-3??; Ibid. 2, 1879 (1881), II:237-249; Ibid. 3, 1880 (1883), II:222-238.
– “Śūrpāraka”, IA 11, 1882, 293f.
– Contributions to A.D.B.: “Julius Klaproth”, 16, 1882, 51-60; “Christian Lassen”, 17, 1883, 784-788; “Robert Lenz”, 18, 1883, 279; “Ed. Röer”, 29, 1889, 42-45; “Friedrich August Rosen”, 29, 1889, 192-195.
– “Vorderindien”, Wissensch. Jahresbericht über die Morgenl. Studien im Jahre 1880. Suppl. to ZDMG 34, 1880. Lp. 1883, 13-43; similar account for 1881. Ibid. 1885, 20-59.
– Contributed Oriental bibliography to E. Kuhn’s Literatur-Blatt für orientalische Philologie 1, 1883-84, 33-42, 72-116, 253-377; 2, 1884-85, 97-371; 3, 1885-87, 1-261; 4, 1887-88, 1-192.
– “The date of the poet Mâgha”, WZKM 4, 1890, 61-71.
– “Specimen of a Literary-Bibliographical Jaina-Onomasticon”, SBeAW 1892:1, 349-362.
– Edited by E. Leumann: “The Sāmāchārī-Śatakam of Samayasundara and Pattavalis of the Anchala-Gachchha and other Gachchhas”, IA 23, 1894, 169-183.
– Jaina-Onomasticon. Ed. by P. Flügel & K. Krümpelmann. 1012 p. Jaina Studies 1. Wb. 2016.
Sources: dates Vita in diss.; dates and photo in Rau 62; *E. Leumann, IA 1894, 169; information given by P. Flügel and K. Krümpelmann (2015); letters to Weber, E. Kuhn, Lanman and E. Karras in P. Flügel, “J.O.E.K. (1852-1903). Forgotten Chronicler of Jainism and Bibliographer of Oriental Literature”, BIS 23, 2016, 67-138, with life and photo, with much more details and full bibliography in the 164 p. Introduction by P. Flügel to Onomasticon. 2016; Wikipedia.
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