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BENFEY, THEODOR (1809-1881)
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See also:BENFEY, THEODOR (1809-1881) , See also:German philologist, son of a Jewish trader at Norten, near See also:Gottingen, was See also:born on the 28th of See also:January 1809. Although originally designed for the medical profession, his See also:taste for See also:philology was awakened by a careful instruction in See also:Hebrew which he received from his See also:father. After brilliant studies at Gottingen he spent a See also:year at See also:Munich, where he was greatly impressed by the lectures of See also:Schelling and See also:Thiersch, and afterwards settled as a teacher in See also:Frankfort. His pursuits were at first chiefly classical, and his See also:attention was diverted to See also:Sanskrit by an accidental See also:wager that he would learn enough of the See also:language in a few See also:weeks to be able to See also:review a new See also:book upon it. This feat he accomplished, and rivalled in later years when he learned See also:Russian in See also:order to translate V. P. Vasilev's See also:work on See also:Buddhism. For the See also:time, however, his labours were chiefly in classical and Semitic philology. At Gottingen, whither he had returned as privat-docent, he wrote a little work on the names of the Hebrew months, proving that they were derived from the See also:Persian, prepared the See also:great See also:article on See also:India in See also:Ersch and Grtiber's See also:Encyclopaedia, and published from 1839 to 1842 the See also:Lexicon of See also:Greek Roots which gained him the See also:Volney See also:prize of the See also:Institute of See also:France. From this time his attention was principally given to Sanskrit. He published in 1848 his edition of the Sama-veda; in 1852–1854 his See also:Manual of Sanskrit, comprising a See also:grammar and chrestomathy; in 1858 his See also:practical Sanskrit grammar, after-wards translated into See also:English; and in 1859 his edition of the Pantscha Tantra, with an extensive dissertation on the fables and mythologies of See also:primitive nations. All these See also:works had been produced under the pressure of poverty, the See also:government, whether from See also:parsimony or from See also:prejudice against a See also:Jew, refusing to make any substantial addition to his small See also:salary as extra-See also:professor at the university. At length, in 1862, the growing appreciation of See also:foreign scholars shamed it into making him an See also:ordinary professor, and in 1866 Benfey published the laborious work by which he is on the whole best known, his great Sanskrit-English See also:Dictionary. In 1869 he wrote a See also:history of German philological See also:research, especially See also:Oriental, during the 19th See also:century. In 1878 his See also:jubilee as See also:doctor was celebrated by the publication of a See also:volume of philological essays dedicated to him and written by the first scholars in See also:Germany. He had designed to See also:close his See also:literary labours by a grammar of Vedic Sanskrit, and was actively preparing it when he was interrupted by illness, which terminated in his See also:death at Gottingen on the 26th of See also:June 1881. A collection of his various writings was published in 1890, prefaced by a memoir by his son. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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