NORRIS, Edwin. Taunton, Somerset 24.10.1795 — Brompton, London 10.12.1872. British Oriental and Celtic Scholar. Son of a printer. Educated at the local school by its headmaster, his uncle Henry Norris, himself uncle of —> J. Dowson (1820–1881). Never studied at a university. As young he spent six years in France…
NIEBUHR, Carsten. Lüdingworth near Cuxhaven 17.3.1733 — Meldorf, Holstein 26.4.1815. German Traveller, Geographer and Engineer in Danish Service. Son of Barthold Niebuhr (1704–1749), a free farmer, and Caecilie von Duhn (1706–1733). Father’s death interrupted school, but he studied privately mathematics, surveying, and Arabic, then as student at Göttingen. Selected by…
MENANT, Joachim. Cherbourg 16.4.1820 — Paris 30.8.1899. French Assyriologist, with interest in Iranian religion. Son of Joachim Menant and Amable Boissière, lost his father when 10. Educated in Cherbourg. He became a lawyer (studies at Caen) and worked in administrative positions in different towns (Cherbourg, Vire, Alençon, Lisieux, Evreux, Le…
LUZZATO, Philosseno (Philosenno, Philoxène). Padova 10.7.1829 — Padova 25.1.1854. Italian/Austrian (Jewish) Oriental Scholar. Son of the famous Jewish scholar Samuel David Luzzato (1800–1865). As child he learned Hebrew from his father and in the age of 15 made an attempt at deciphering the Cuneiform writing. He read Akkadian Cuneiform as…
LASSEN, Christian. Bergen 22.10.1800 — Bonn 8.5.1876. Norwegian Indologist in Germany. Professor in Bonn. Son of Nicolai Christian Vendelboe Lassen (1748–1818), a lawyer, and Frederikke Elisabeth Frisch (1761–1830). Matriculated 1818 from Bergen school and after his father’s death went in 1819 with his mother to his married sister living in…
KOSSOVIČ, Kaetan Andreevič. (Cajetan Kossovich). Polotsk (now Polack in Belarus) 2.(14.)5.1815 (or 1814, see Vigasin 2008, 94) — St.Petersburg 7.2.(26.1.)1883. (Bela-)Russian Indo-Iranian Scholar. Professor in St.Petersburg. Son of a Belarusian priest, brother of —> Ignatij Kossovič (1808–1878). Educated in Polock and at Vitebsk Gymnasium. In 1836-39 studied classical philology and…
KÖNIG, Friedrich Wilhelm. Adlerkosteletz (Kostelic nad Orlici), Bohemia 7.1.1897 — Vienna 5.2.1972. Austrian Historian of Ancient Iran and the Near East. Son of railway officer, educated in Vienna. After gymnasium in Vienna voluntary in Russian front 1915-17, lost his left leg and one eye. Now continued his studies of Sanskrit,…
KING, Leonard William. London 8.12.1869 — 20.8.1919. British Archaeologist and Assyriologist. Professor in London. Son of Robert King (d. 1886) and Mary Scarborough Educated at Rugby, studied King’s College, Cambridge, beginning with theology, but soon Egyptology and Assyriology (B.A. 1891, M.A. 1895, LL.D. 1914). From 1892 in British Museum, working…
KENT, Roland Grubb. Wilmington, Del. 24.2.1877 — Bryn Mawr, Pa. 27.6.1952. U.S. Latin, IE and Iranian scholar. Professor in Philadelphia. Son of Lindley Coates Kent (1844–1916), a lumber merchant, and Anna Grubb (1855–1901). Educated at Swarthmore College. A.B. 1895, B.Litt. 1896, A.M. 1898. Further studies in 1899-1900 at Berlin, 1900…
HOLTZMANN, Adolf Karl Wilhelm (der ältere). Karlsruhe 2.5.1810 — Heidelberg 3.7.1870. German Indologist and Germanist. Professor in Heidelberg. Son of Johann Michael Holtzmann (1774–1820), a teacher (at Lyceum), and Christiane Fetzer, brother of Karl Julius Holtzmann (1804–1877), the father of the younger —> Adolf Holtzmann (1838–1914) From 1828 studies of…