Veikko Väänänen

Veikko Ilmari Väänänen (born November 28, 1905 in Mikkeli , † June 1, 1997 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish Latinist and Romanist .

Veikko Väänänen studied at the University of Helsinki . Several study trips then took him mainly to France and Italy. In 1937 he received his doctorate with the work Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes . The treatise on Vulgar Latin is still considered a fundamental work on the development of Vulgar Latin and has become a classic. Its importance is already reflected in the fact that it was published a total of three times by 1966, two of which, in a revised and expanded form, as an academy font in Germany. It is a very unusual process for doctoral theses. In 1938 Väänänen became an assistant professor of classical philology in Helsinki. In 1951, he moved to the Romance Department at the same university, which he held until his retirement in 1971. In addition, he was director of the Finnish Institute in Rome from 1959 to 1962 and again in 1968/69 . Visiting professorships took him to the University of St. Louisiana in 1948/49 , and to the University of Strasbourg in 1967 and 1974 . In 1992 he was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Toulouse and the University of Bucharest .

Väänänen is one of the most important representatives of the subjects both in Finland and internationally, both as a Latinist and as a Romanist. During his first directorate in Rome, the Finn dealt with his students with wall inscriptions and graffiti on the Palatine Hill . The results have been published in two volumes. His second directorate also dealt with the Roman inscriptions. Now the newly found inscriptions under were Autoparco Vaticano nearby necropolis investigated. These studies were also published in a book. During his time in Rome he completed his Introduction au latin vulgaire . It saw several editions, also in its Spanish and Italian translations. Other monographs dealt with old French fables and Gautier de Coincy , among others . A festschrift was dedicated to his 60th birthday. Until his death, Väänänen participated in the national, especially in Helsinki, but also international scientific and intellectual life. He finished his last writing on the morning of his death.

Fonts

• Saksasta suomeksi. Käännösviitteitä, -esimerkkejä ja -näytteitä pro exercitio-kokeisiin valmistautuville sekä muille opiskelijoille, ylioppilaskokelaille ja harrastajille , Söderström, Porvoo - Helsinki 1949 ² ; 1968 ⁶
• German reader of scientific content , Gummerus, Jyväskylä 1954 ⁴
• Le Latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes. Nouvelle éd. rev. et augm. , Academy, Berlin 1959 (Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Class for Languages, Literature and Art, born 1958, No. 3)
• Introduction au latin vulgaire , Klincksieck, Paris 1963

literature

• Heikki Solin : Veikko Väänänen †. In: Gnomon . Volume 71, 1999, pp. 573f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Veikko Väänänen in the catalog of the German National Library