Robert Priebsch
Robert Priebsch (11 June 1866 - 25 May 1935) was a Bohemian-German professor and philologist. He also studied Anglo-Saxon literature, and moved to the United Kingdom to teach both German and English with a focus on the medieval period.
Biography
[edit]Robert Priebsch was born in Tannwald on 11 June 1866 in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire (modern Tanvald in the Czech Republic). He was the second of four sons, and his family were Sudeten Germans. He was afflicted by foot problems from an early age, an ailment that never left him, with the sole comfort that his difficulty in moving about lead to a lifetime love of reading books. He studied at the Realgymnasium of Reichenberg (Liberec) from 1879&ndas;1886, with the exception of 1882 where he studied at a German gymnasium in Neustadt-Prag. He proceeded to various German-speaking universities in the years afterward, studying German literature, Germanic mythology, philosophy, and the Anglo-Saxon language. He completed his doctoral thesis under Anton Schönbach at the University of Graz.[1]
Priebsch married in 1898. The couple had a daughter, Hannah, together.[1]
From 1898 to 1931 he was a professor at University College London. With one of his students, W. E. Collinson, he published The German Language (1934).[2] His two-volume Deutsche Handschriften in England (Erlangen 1896–1901) is a standard in the field.[3]
His extensive collection of books and manuscripts was left to his daughter Hannah and his son-in-law August Closs;[4] augmented significantly by Closs, the collection included 2300 volumes of 17th to 19th-century books which now comprise the Priebsch-Closs collection of the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies in London.[5]
His correspondence with Elias von Steinmeyer was edited and published by Closs.[2][3]
Priebsch died on 25 May 1935 in a Waldsanatorium near Vienna. In his study, an incomplete work on the "Letter from Heaven" (Himmelsbrief) was found; it was published posthumously in 1936, including a full Bibliography of Priebsch's work.[1]
Select bibliography
[edit]- Robert Priebsch-Elias von Steinmeyer: Briefwechsel. Ausgewahlt und herausgegeben von August Closs (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1979)[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Priebsch, Robert (1936). Letter from Heaven on the Observance of the Lord's Day. Oxford: Basil Blackwell & Mott. pp. xi–xv.
- ^ a b c Penzl, Herbert (1981). "Rev. Robert Priebsch-Elias von Steinmeyer: Briefwechsel". Language. 57 (1): 229–30. doi:10.2307/414304. JSTOR 414304.
- ^ a b O'C. Walshe, M. (1981). "Rev. of Cross, Robert Priebsch-Elias von Steinmeyer: Briefwechsel". Modern Language Review. 76 (3): 755–56. doi:10.2307/3727475. JSTOR 3727475.
- ^ "Closs, August Max". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29986. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Flood, John L. (1991). "Die mittelalterlichen Handschriften der Bibliothek des Institute of Germanic Studies, London". Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur. 120 (3): 325–30. JSTOR 20658056.
