Curt Wittlin (13 April 1941 – 23 September 2019) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and an expert of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Catalan language and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

Biography

Wittlin studied romance philology in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

with Germà Colon, and later in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. He got his PhD in 1965 with a thesis about the Catalan translation of Brunetto Latini's ''Treasure'' by Guillem de Copons. He became Professor of Romance Philology and Historical Linguistics at the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

(

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

), where he arrived in 1967. He became a specialist in the edition of medieval translations in Europe of texts by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

and John of Wales, among others. He also worked on

Ramon Llull Ramon Llull (; ; – 1316), sometimes anglicized as ''Raymond Lully'', was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art ...

and on the history of medieval Catalan libraries. The Catalan writer to which he devoted most of his life was Francesc Eiximenis. Wittlin published most of the modern editions of Francesc Eiximenis' works and wrote many studies and articles about Eiximenis. In 1997 he became a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies and from 1990 to 1993 he was president of the North American Catalan Society. In 2000 he received the ''Creu de Sant Jordi'' (Saint George cross), a high distinction given by the regional Catalan government.

Works

* ''Lo llibre de les dones d' Eiximenis'' (1980) with F. Naccarato * ''Repertori d'expressions multinominals i de grups de sinònims en traduccions catalanes antigues'' (

Lluis Nicolau d'Olwer Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

price, 1989) * ''La geometria secreta del tapís de Girona'' in Revista de Girona, 1991 * ''De la traducció literal a la creació literària'' ( Serra d'Or prize 1996) * ''Entorn de les edicions de textos medievals'' in Estudis Romànics, 2004

References

External links

*
Biography in the University of Saskatchewan website
*
Wittlin's works
*
Article about Wittlin in the Great Catalan Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittlin, Curt 1941 births 2019 deaths Linguists from Catalonia Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies Swiss philologists Swiss-German people Swiss expatriates in Spain University of Barcelona alumni Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan People from Basel-Landschaft