FRANCIS, Henry Thomas. West Raynham, Norfolk 22.10.1837 — 28.6.1924. British Indologist (Pāli scholar). Son of William Francis. Education: schools at Walsingham & Ipswitch; from 1856 studies at Cambridge (B.A. 1860, M.A. 1863), 1861-73 Fellow of Caius College. Assistant schoolmaster in Kensington 1864-65, Bromsgrove 1865-73 and at Bedford Grammar School 1874-77.…
EDWARDS, Edward. Llangedwyn, Montgomeryshire, Powys 5.5.1870 — Llandinam, Montgomeryshire 28.4.1944. British Librarian and Iranian Scholar. Educated in Oswestry and Bala. Studies at University College of Wales in Aberystwyth (under H. Ethé) and 1900-03 Christ’s College, Cambridge. B.A. Wales and Cambridge. From 1904 Assistant in Department of Oriental Printed Books and…
BENDA, Elimar. Freiburg im Br. 13.8.1890 — 1976. German Librarian. Dr.iur. 1913 Jena. Further studies of comparative linguistics, Germanistics and Sanskrit at Marburg. From c. 1921 Library Assistant Berlin, in 1922 moved to Marburg, in 1926/30 Librarian in Freiburg im Br., in 1940 Bibliotheksrat in Heidelberg. In the Preface of…
WILLIAMS, Robert Hamilton Blair. Buckland, East Tilbury, Essex 21.8.1915 — 1975. British Indologist. At S.O.A.S. in London. Son of Hamilton Blair Lee W. Graduated B.A. 1937 from S.O.A.S. in Indo-Aryan (under Turner). Assistant Keeper in India Office Library (Sanskrit, Pāli and Prākrit books) in 1939-46 and again 1954-57 and, although…
STEINSCHNEIDER, Moritz. Prossnitz, Moravia (now Prostějov in Czech) 30.3.1816 — Berlin 24.1.1907. Moravian Jewish Rabbi and Semitic Scholar. Son of Jacob St., a Talmud scholar. After school Talmudic studies in Prague (1833-36) and Vienna, now also other Semitic languages. Pressed by anti-Jewish laws of Austria he went to Leipzig and…
SAMPSON, John. Schull, County Cork 25.2.1862 — West Kirkby, Cheshire 9.11.1931. British (Irish) Librarian and Gipsy Scholar. Son of James Sampson, a chemist and mining engineer from Cornwall, and Sarah Anne MacDermott. His father lost all his money in a bank failure 1871 and the family moved to Liverpool, when…
ROCA Y LÓPEZ, Pedro.Tarancón (Cuenca) 9.10.1856 — Madrid 21.1.1903. Spanish Scholar. Dr.phil. In Sanskrit student of Gelabert y Gordiola, as librarian of Barcelona University gave first Sanskrit teaching there. Later in Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid Publications: Review of Gelabert y Gordiola’s Manual de lengua sanscrita in La Unión católica 24. &…
PEARSON, James (Jim) Douglas. Cambridge ?.12.1911 — Cambridge 1.8.1997. British Librarian, Specialist of Asian Books. Of humble origins, grew up in Cambridge and was employed from the age of 16 as bookfetcher in the University Library there. He developed a taste for “exotic languages” and won a scholarship for Hebrew…
OPPERT, Gustav Salomon. Hamburg 30.7.1836 — Berlin 1.3.1908 (or 17.3.). German Indologist in India. Professor in Madras. Son of Eduard Oppert (until 1812 Oppenheimer, 1792–1874) and Henriette Gans (1800–1875), brother of —> Jules Oppert (1825–1905) and Ernst Jacob Oppert (1832–1903) who was a merchant in Shanghai and visited three times…
MŽIK, Hans von. Rzeszów, Galicia (now in Poland) 24.7.1876 — Vienna 4.3.1961. Austrian Historian of Geography. PD 1917 Vienna “für historische Geographie des Orients”. Ao. Professor 1929, from 1935 also taught Armenian. From 1921 also head of the map collection of Austrian National Library. Married Paula Horschlitz (1891–1961), one daughter.…