Robert Lenz (Indo-Europeanist)

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Robert Lenz (* January 23 . Jul / 4. February  1808 greg. In Dorpat , now Tartu, Estonia , † July 30 jul. / 11. August  1836 greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was a Baltic German Sanskrit researcher.

Life

Robert Lenz was a younger brother of the physicist Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz . He attended the grammar school in his hometown and studied theology at the university there from 1824 , left the university as a graduate student in 1828 and took over the position of pension inspector and teacher at the knight and cathedral school in Reval in the summer of that year . However, he gave up this office again around Easter 1830 and moved to the university in Berlin in the spring of 1831 . Here he pursued his greatest inclination for Sanskrit studies under Bopp's direction and received his doctorate in 1832.

Lenz then published the report on a collection of Sanskrit manuscripts deposited in the Asian Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Petersburg (Leipzig and Saint Petersburg 1833) and in the same year published the drama Urvači by the Indian poet Kalidasa with a Latin translation and critical comments ( Urvasia fabula Calidasi, Textum sanscritum edidit, interpretationem Latinam et notas illustrantes adjecit Robertus Lenz Dr. Ph. , Berlin 1833). For further training in his Sanskrit studies, he went to London in 1833 with the support of the Russian government , compared the Urvači manuscripts there ( Apparatus criticus ad Urvasini fabulam Calidasi , Berlin 1834) and copied the Lalitavistara , of which he had a table of contents as a forerunner Published translation (not published) ( Analyze du Lalita-vistara-pourana, l'un des principaux ouvrages sacrés des Bouddhistes de l'Asie centrale, contenant la vie de leur prophète, et écrit en sanscrit , in: Bulletin scientifique , Saint Petersburg 1836 ).

After studying in London for more than a year, Lenz returned to Saint Petersburg in July 1835 , where he presented his report on the state of Sanskrit literature in England to the President of the Academy. He was appointed adjunct of the Academy of Sciences and opened lectures on Sanskrit and comparative languages ​​at the university. However, an untimely death on August 11, 1836, put an unexpected end to his extensive scientific endeavors. His literary estate went to the library of the Asian Museum.

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personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic Sanskrit researcher
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorpat
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1836
Place of death St. Petersburg