PALLAS, Peter Simon. Berlin 22.9.1741 — Berlin 8.9.1811. German Botanist, Ethnologist, Naturalist and Linguist in Russian Service. Son of Simon Pallas (1694–1770), Professor of Surgery, and Susanne Lienhardi. Studies of medicine and natural sciences at Halle, Göttingen and Leiden (Dr.med. there 1760). Some years living in the Hague and Berlin,…
OLDHAM, Thomas. Dublin 4.5.1816 — Rugby, Warwickshire 17.7.1878. British (Anglo-Irish) Geologist in India. Son of Thomas Oldham and Margaret Boyd (D.N.B. Bagot). Educated privately, studies at Trinity College in Dublin, B.A. 1836, M.A. 1846. From 1836 further studies of geology at Engineering School in Edinburgh. In 1838 employed in the…
OEHLER, Gustav Friedrich. Ebingen, Württemberg 10.6.1812 — Tübingen 19.2.1872. German Lutheran Conservative Theologian and Oriental Scholar. Son of a modest teacher, Georg Friedrich Oehler, and Johanna Gastpar (d. c. 1821). Educated in Ebingen and in the seminary of Blaubeuren, from 1829-33 studied theology and Oriental languages at Tübingen, learned Sanskrit from…
MONTESI, Giancarlo. 1928 — 1983. Italian Scholar of Religion. Ph.D. 1954 Rome, under Pettazzoni. Worked at La Sapienzà teaching comparative religion. Publications: Diss. Tamas – Usas – Rtà. [1954]. – “II valore cosmico dell’Aurora nel pensiero mitologico del Rig-Veda”, Studi e materiali per la storia delle religioni 24-25, 1953-54, 111-132; “Uṣāsānaktā. Mitologia vedica della notte”, Studi…
MENGES, Karl Heinrich. Frankfurt a.M. 22.4.1908 — Vienna 20.9.1999. German Turkologist in the U.S.A. Professor in New York. Born in a Roman Catholic family, son of a magistrate. Educated at Lessing Gymnasium in Frankfurt, matriculated 1926. Studies of ethnology, Slavistics, Turkish, etc. (also some Sanskrit) at Frankfurt, Munich and from 1928…
MARTINI, François. Can Tho, Vietnam, near Cambodian border 20.5.1895 — 18.6.1965. French Indologist and South-East Asian Scholar. Son of Corsican father and Cambodian mother. Studied law and philosophy, participated in the WW I (wounded) and after war studied languages in Paris, soon Sanskrit under S. Lévi. Diplom of Thai at…
MCCAWLEY, James David (born James Quillan McCawley, Jr.). Glasgow 30.3.1938 — Chicago 10.4.1999. U.S. (Scottish-born) Linguist. Professor in Chicago. Son of James Quillan McCawley, a businessman, and Monica Bateman, a physician, a Roman Catholic family. In 1939 the father moved to Toronto, but the family only followed after the war.…
LITTMANN, Ludwig Richard Enno. Oldenburg 16.9.1875 — Tübingen 4.5.1958. German Semitic and Ethiopian scholar. Professor in Tübingen. Son of Gustav Adolph Littmann (1829–1893), owner of a printing house, and Sophie Jacoby (1843–1924). After gymnasium in Oldenburg from 1894 studies of theology and languages at Berlin (A. Dillmann), Greifswald and Halle. Ph.D.…
LEXER, Matthias (Ritter von). Liesing im Lesachtal 18.10.1830 — Nürnberg 16.4.1892. Austrian Germanist in Germany. Son of Andreas Lexer (d. 1861), a mill owner and farmer, and Elisabeth Goller. After gymnasium in Klagenfurt studied from 1851 first law at Graz, but soon switched to German, then also at Vienna. After…
LEACH, Abigail. Brockton, MA 28.5.1855 — Poughkeepsie, co. Dutchess, NY 29.12.1918. U.S. Greek Scholar and Pioneer of Female Education. Born as the daughter of the shoe manufacturer Marcus Leach (1810–1910) and Eliza Paris Bourne. Through her insistent demands to Harvard professors the Harvard Annex for women (now Radcliffe College) was…