Marianne Winder (10 September 1918 – 6 April 2001) was a Czech-British specialist in Middle High German and a librarian at the Institute of Germanic Studies at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. She later was associated for more than thirty years with the

Wellcome Library The Wellcome Library is a free library and Museum based in central London. It was developed from the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the ...

of the

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (1968–1999) was a London centre for the study and teaching of medical history. It consisted of the Wellcome Library and an Academic Unit. The former was and is a world-class library collection ...

where she was successively Assistant Librarian (1963–1970), Curator of Eastern Printed Manuscripts and Books (1970–1978) and finally, after having retired, a Tibetan medical consultant (1978–2001).Nigel Allan
'Marianne Winder'
''Medical History'', Vol. 45, No. 4, October 2001, pp. 533–535 – accessed September 28, 2019)

Biography

Marianne Winder was born on 10 September 1918 in

Teplice Teplice (, until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; , ''Teplitz-Schönau'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 51,000 inhabitants. It is the most populous Czech spa town, followed by Karlovy Vary. The historic city cen ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

, in the last days of

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

. She was the eldest of the two daughters of

Ludwig Winder Ludwig Winder (7 February 1889 in Šafov – 16 June 1946 in Baldock) was an Austrian-Czech German-language writer, journalist and literary critic. He escaped Nazi persecution at the start of World War II when he and his family moved to the UK wh ...

(1889–1946), a writer and literary critic, and Hedwig Winder (1891–1987). Her early life was bound up in the social milieu of the Jewish intelligentsia of Central Europe before its destruction during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

was part of the literary circle the "

Prague Circle Prague ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 mi ...

" in pre-War Prague that included her father, and this no doubt influenced Marianne Winder's interest in German literature. When the political situation deteriorated in the 1930s the Winder family was forced to leave Prague to seek refuge in England.Obituary for Marianne Winder - ''Buddhist Studies Review'', Vol 19, Issue 1 (2002) pg. 56-57
/ref> After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Winder fled on 29 June 1939, when he crossed the Polish border illegally with his family, his journey taking him across Poland and Scandinavia to England, where he arrived with his wife and daughter Marianne on 13 July 1939. His youngest daughter, and Marianne's younger sister, Eva, born in 1920, remained in Prague. She died in 1945 in the concentration camp at

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

. Six weeks after their arrival in England the Winders were evacuated to

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'', and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The ea ...

, where they lived in a refugee hostel and where Marianne was registered as a student aged 18. When the inn was closed in 1941, the family moved to

Baldock Baldock ( ) is a historic market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The River Ivel rises from springs in the town. It lies north of London and north northwest of the county town of Hertford. Nearby towns inc ...

, then a small village in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. In the summer of 1941 Ludwig Winder was diagnosed with

coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart ...

and he succumbed to his heart disease in Baldock on 16 June 1946.

Studies

After the War, Marianne Winder began studying German as an external student at the

. On gaining her honours degree in 1948 she obtained a post as Tutorial Assistant in the Department of German at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

. At Nottingham she completed a Master's thesis on the

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of High Middle German words, an excerpt from which was published in 1952 as a supplement to Maurice Walshe's dictionary, ''A Concise German Etymological Dictionary''. As no etymological dictionary of High Middle German in medieval German texts existed at that time her contribution was significant in the field.

Career

In 1953 Winder was appointed Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Germanic Studies at the

, where she continued her research on German language and literature. She was interested in the writings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance on astrology. She defended a thesis on German astrological books from 1452 to 1600 and graduated in 1963 with a degree in Librarianship from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Her dissertation was published in 1966 in ''The Annals of Science''. At this time she accepted the position of Assistant Librarian in the

at the

where she was to remain for the rest of her career. At the

Wellcome Institute The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (1968–1999) was a London centre for the study and teaching of medical history. It consisted of the Wellcome Library and an Academic Unit. The former was and is a world-class library collectio ...

her linguistic knowledge proved to be very useful for cataloging and organising the collection. She collaborated with Dr.

Walter Pagel Walter Traugott Ulrich Pagel (12 November 1898 – 25 March 1983) was a Germans, German pathologist and medical historian. Biography Pagel was born in Berlin, the son of the famous physician and historian of medicine Julius Leopold Pagel. He mar ...

, a pathologist and medical historian, and co-authored with him several articles including 'Gnostiches bei Paracelsus und Konrad von Megenberg' in ''Fachliteratur des Mittlelalters'', (1968); 'Hervey and the "Modern" Concept of Disease', in ''The Bulletin of the History of Medicine'', (1968); 'The Eightness of Adam and Related "Gnostic" Ideas in the Paracelsian Corpus' in ''Ambix'', (1969). In 1972 she established the bibliography of Dr. Pagel's writings in Science, medicine and society in the Renaissance, in a tribute volume in his honour. On Pagel's death in 1983 she took charge of the publication of his complete work in two volumes, the first published in 1985 under the title ''Religion and Neoplatonism in Renaissance Medicine'', the second in 1986 entitled ''From Paracelsus to Van Helmont''. Having converted to

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

she became Archivist for the

Buddhist Society The Buddhist Society is a UK registered charity which aims to encourage the study and practice of Buddhist principles. The Buddhist Society is an inter-denominational and non-sectarian lay organisation. It offers talks and classes on the teach ...

. In 1957 she had published the German translation of

Edward Conze Edward Conze, born Eberhard Julius Dietrich Conze (1904–1979), was a scholar of Marxism and Buddhism, known primarily for his commentaries and translations of the Prajñāpāramitā literature. Biography Conze's parents, Dr. Ernst Conze (1872 ...

's ''Buddhist Texts Through the Ages'' but emphasized that she did not associate herself with all the points of view expressed in this autobiography, let alone with the passages on the President of the Buddhist Society

Christmas Humphreys Travers Christmas Humphreys, QC (15 February 1901 – 13 April 1983) was a British jurist who prosecuted several controversial cases in the 1940s and 1950s, and who later became a judge at the Old Bailey. He also wrote a number of works on Maha ...

who, according to her, had had the most beneficial influence on her life. Winder spoke several languages, including

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and Buddhist

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

. In 1958 she became deputy editor of the

's magazine ''The Middle Way'' and succeeded Mrs Carlo Robins as editor-in-chief from 1961 to 1965, when she was succeeded by Muriel Daw.''World Buddhism'' - Volumes 10 - 11, 1961: "The Middle Way" has a new editor. Miss Marianne Winder, who has acted for some time as Assistant Editor, has been appointed Editor of The Middle Way, "the oldest and still the most influential Buddhist periodical published in the West." The Middle Way is published by the Buddhist Society of London, whose president is Mr. Christmas Humphreys. It was founded in 1924. The previous Editor, Mrs. Carlo Robins, has borne the responsibility of editing the magazine for ten years, and she wanted, at least for a while, to be relieved of the task. Miss Winder, who recently acquired her Librarian's Diploma at the London University, speaks several languages and is a scholar of both Sanskrit and Pali Buddhism Winder was also interested in the language and culture of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

and took lessons in Tibetan at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

. When the position of Curator of Oriental Manuscripts and Prints was created at the

in 1970 she gained it. This was the beginning of Winder's second career.

Second career

Winder undertook to catalogue and classify the collections for which she was responsible and to place them within the reach of the specialists of Eastern Studies, a vast task which made them a leading source for the study of the medicine in Asian cultures. At the same time she began a collaboration with Rechung Rinpoché Jampal Kunzang which led to the publication in 1973 of ''Tibetan Medicine: Illustrated in Original Texts'', for which she also wrote the Introduction and which, through its foreign editions in Chinese and French and its revisions, became a classic on Tibetan medicine and the first work in English on the subject. Always willing to learn, the new Curator attended all the classes of the English Tibetologist

David Snellgrove David Llewellyn Snellgrove, FBA (29 June 192025 March 2016) was a British Tibetologist noted for his pioneering work on Buddhism in Tibet as well as his many travelogues. Biography Snellgrove was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and educated ...

Retirement

Upon her retirement from the Wellcome Institute in 1978 Winder was appointed Consultant in Tibetan Medicine at the Institute which allowed her to continue her work on the ''Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and the catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine'', which was published in 1989. Her successor at the Wellcome Institute was Nigel Allan. In September 1985 she participated in an international workshop on the study of Indian medicine where she presented her paper 'Vaidarya' which was published in the Proceedings of the Symposium as ''Studies in Indian Medicine''. In 1986 Winder organized a conference on aspects of classical Tibetan medicine in Central Asia together with a leading exhibition, 'Body and Mind in Tibetan Medicine', at the Wellcome Institute in London, and for which she also produced the exhibition catalogue. The Proceedings of the conference were under her direction and were published in 1993 under the title ''Aspects of Classical Tibetan Medicine''.'Aspects of Classical Tibetan Medicine', ''Buddhist Studies Review'', Vol 19, Institut de recherche bouddhique Linh-Son, Pali Buddhist Union, UK Association for Buddhist Studies, 2002, p. 57:"The following year, she organised a conference on 'Aspects of Classical Tibetan Medicine as reflected in Central Asia' and with it staged a major exhibition ('Body and Mind in Tibetan Medicine') for which she produced the catalogue. The conference proceedings were edited by Winder and appeared in 1993 under the title Aspects of Classical Tibetan Medicine." Winder sat on the Council for ''

Ambix ''Ambix'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the history of alchemy and chemistry; it was founded in 1936 and has appeared continuously from 1937 to the present, other than from 1939 to 1945 during World War II. It is currently published by the ...

'', the Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, and acted as a consultant for the book ''Eastern Healing: the practical guide to the healing traditions of China, India, Tibet and India'' published just before her death. Marianne Winder died in London in April 2001 aged 82 after a short illness.

Books

* ''Im Zeichen Buddhas'', Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1957 (''Fischer-Bücherei'' 144), traduction en allemand de ''Buddhist texts through the ages'' d'

* with Rechung Rinpoché Jampal Kunzang, ''Tibetan medicine: illustrated in original texts'', 1973 * with

, ''Religion and neoplatonism in Renaissance medicine'', Variorum Reprints, 1985, 346 p. * with Rechung Rinpoché, ''Histoire de la médecine tibétaine. Vie de gYu-thog-pa l'Ancien'', traduit de l'anglais par Jean-Paul R. Claudon, Sylvaine Jean et Martine Pageon-Tarin, Édition Le Chardon, Saint-Dié (Vosges), 1989, 279 p., * ''Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine'', London, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1989, pp. XIII, 112S, illus.

Articles

* with

, 'Gnostiches bei Paracelsus und Konrad von Megenberg', in ''Fachliteratur des Mittlelalters'', 1968 * 'The Eightness of Adam and related to "gnostic" ideas in the Paracelsian corpus', in ''Ambix'', 1969 * 'Modern and traditional medicine: rivals or friends? Some solutions attempted by India, China, Japan and Tibetans in exile'. ''Bulletin of the British Association of Orientalists'', 1979-1980, 11, p. 35-39. * 'Tibetan Medicine Compared with Ancient and Medieval Western Medicine', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1981, Vol. 17, N. 1, p. 5-22. * 'The Buddhist antecedents of Tibetan medicine', ''Tibet News Review'', 2(1/2) (1981), p. 29-34. * 'Buddhism and Tibetology', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1984, Vol. 20, N. 1, p. 10-13.
Tibetan Buddhist medicine and psychiatry. The diamond healing
''Med Hist.'' 1985; 29(2) : p. 224. * 'Malli Ka', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1988, Vol. 24, N. 3, p. 5-11. * 'Tibetan medicine', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1989, Vol. 25, N. 2, p. 5-16. * 'Vaidurya', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1990, Vol. 26, N. 1-3, p. 31-37. * 'Aspects of the history of the prayer wheel', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1992, Vol. 28, N. 1, p. 25-33. * 'Tibetan Medicine, its Humours and Elements', ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', 1994, Vol. 30, N. 1, p. 11-25. * 'Der Buddhismus und die tibetische Medizin', ''Tibet Forum'', no. 2, (1985), p. 7-10.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winder, Marianne 1918 births 2001 deaths People from Teplice People from Baldock Czech Jews English Jews British librarians Czech librarians British women librarians Etymologists Czech Buddhists English Buddhists 20th-century Buddhists Converts to Buddhism Czech Indologists English Indologists Buddhist translators Translators from Sanskrit Buddhist writers British scholars of Buddhism 20th-century translators Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of Nottingham Alumni of University College London Academics of the University of Nottingham People associated with SOAS University of London Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom