VEYSSIÈRE DE LACROZE, Mathurin (M. V. de La Croze). Nantes 4.12.1661 — Berlin 21.5.1739. French Oriental Scholar and Polyhistor. Son of a rich merchant, he left school and went to the colony of Guadeloupe to learn trade. Back in Nantes (1677) and after the bankruptcy of his father studied medicine,…
VENDRYES, Joseph (Joseph Jean-Baptiste-Marie V.). Paris 13.1.1875 — Paris 30.1.1960. French IE, Celtic and General Linguist. Professor in Paris. Son of a civil servant, Albert Vendryes and Marguerite Lambert. School in Paris (Lycée Louis-le-Grand). Studies in Paris under Meillet et al. (Sanskrit under V. Henry and S. Lévi). Agrégé de…
ORIANNE, Georges-Barthélemy. London 9.3.1802 — Pondichéry 22.4.1854. French Colonial Servant and Indologist interested in Indian law. Son of Claude Charles Orianne (1767–1849) and Mary Keech (of London). Served in Chandernagore, from 1841 conseilleur à la Cour royale de Pondichéry, finally President of Cour d’appel there. Translated Indian legal works from…
OLLIVIER-BEAUREGARD, Gratien-Michel. Cognac (Charente) 3.6.1817 — Paris 14.1.1901. French Anthropologist, Egyptologist and Oriental Scholar. Worked as lawyer in Paris. In the 1890s President of the French Anthropological Society. Publications: Kachemir et Tibet. Étude d’ethnographie ancienne et moderne. 144 p. P. 1883 (also as an article in Bulletins et Mémoires de la…
OBRY, Jean-Baptiste-François. Villers-Bretonneux (Somme) 17.9.1793 — 1871. French Literate interested in Indology and Religions. Son of wool merchant Firmin Obry and Marie Floride Debrie. Worked as attorney and judge in Amiens. “Juge honoraire, membre de l’académie d’Amiens”. He was much interested in Hebrew and in the 1830s he invented a…
NOUETTE, Charles Georges. Montlhéry near Paris 6.5.1869 — Paris 2.5.1910. French Traveller, the photographer of the Pelliot expedition in Central Asia in 1906-09. After the cossack destruction of the 1920s his and Stein’s photographs are the only remaining document of many Dunhuang murals. He was son of merchant Albert Charles…
MUS, Paul Léon Joseph. Bourges (Cher) 1.6.1902 — Murs (Vaucluse) 9.8.1969. French Art Historian, Sociologist and Indologist. Professor in Paris. Son of a protestant couple of teachers, Cyprien Mus (1872–1940) and Desiree Caille (1873–1945). In 1907 the family moved to Vietnam. Began school in Hanoi, in 1919 returned to France,…
MOUSSET, Louis-Marie. Sanzay (Deux-Sèvres) 7.2.1808 — Pondichéry 8.2.1888. Father. French Tamil Scholar, Missionary in South India. Ordained 1831 (or 18344) in Poitiers and left to India 1835. Worked in Madurai and from 1844 Pondichéry, teaching 40 years at a seminary. Collaborated in Tamil lexicographical work with —> L. S. Dupuis…
MOHL, Jules (Julius von Mohl). Stuttgart 25.10.1800 — Paris 4/5.1.1876. French (German-born) Oriental Scholar in Paris. French citizen 1838. Professor of Persian at Collège de France. Son of a high civil servant in Württemberg, Benjamin Ferdinand von Mohl (1766–1845) and Louisa Friederica Autenrieth, his brothers were Robert (1799–1875, scholar of…
MINARD, Armand. Paris 30.12.1906 — Paris 17.4.1998. French Indologist. Professor in Lyon and Paris. Son of a modest trader, educated at Lycée Chaptal. In 1927-32 studies at École Normale Supérieure and É.P.H.É. (Meillet, Lévi, Bloch, Renou). Licence ès Lettres 1928, agrégation de grammaire 1930. Ph.D. 1937 Paris. From 1933 chargé…