MONSEUR, Eugène Henri Guillaume Edgard. Liège 17.9.1860 — Brussels 6.12.1912. Belgian Indologist, Linguist and Folklorist. Professor in Brussels. Son of an armorer, lost his father in the age of six and mother in 12, and was in care of aunts. Educated at Jesuit school and Athenaeum of Liège. Dr. en philos. et lettres 1884 Liège in classical philology, Dr.iuris 1885. Learned Sanskrit from Michel. Two years of further studies in Paris and six months in Berlin. Worked for a while as attorney, but left law in 1888 when he became Professor. In 1888-1912 Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Grammar at Bruxelles (though in the beginning called “prof. de histoire comparée des littératures modernes” with a “cours libre de sanscrit”, while “grammaire comparée” was added in 1890 and “cours libre des antiquités aryennes” in 1892). From 1900 ord. Professor. Married 1901 Louise Sury, two daughters. Died in tuberculosis.
Monseur was more interested in comparative linguistics than in Indology and eagerly discussed IE roots and questions of comparative mythology. A further interest were local Walloon folklore and religious beliefs (in 1889 he founded with M. Wilmotte the Société du folklore wallon).
Publications: Edited: Cāṇakya: Recension de cinq recueils de stances morales. 19+74 p. P. 1887.
– “L’Inde et l’Occident”, Revue de l’Université de Bruxelles 1897-98, 659-678 & 747-772; other articles.
– “La légende d’Achille d’après M. E.-H. Meyer”, RHR 17, 1888, 23-45; “L’ame pupilline”, RHR 51, 1905, 1-23; “L’ame poucet”, RHR 51, 1905, 361-375; “La proscription religieuse de l’usage récent”, RHR 53, 1906, 290-306.
– Le folklore wallon. 144 p. Bruxelles 1892; an anticlerical pamphlett, 1907; etc.
Sources: A. Despy-Meyer, Nouv. biogr. nat. 1, Bruxelles 1988, 274–277; Dict. Biogr. des sciences, des lettres et des arts en Belgique. 2, 1936 (with a photo); briefly French Wikipédia with photo.
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