Wendelin Förster (often written as Foerster; 10 February 1844 – 18 May 1915) was an Austrian philologist and Romance scholar.

Biography

Förster was born in Wildschütz in

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

(present day Vlčice, Czech Republic) and educated in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he obtained his doctorate in 1872, as a student of

Johannes Vahlen Johannes Vahlen (27 September 1830 in Bonn – 30 November 1911 in Berlin) was a German classical philologist. He was the father of mathematician Theodor Vahlen (1869–1945). In 1852 he graduated at the University of Bonn, where he studied clas ...

. Following a study trip to

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 ...

, he received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in Vienna with a dissertation involving Romance

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. In 1874, he became an associate professor at the University of Prague, and two years later was named a full professor at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

as successor to

Friedrich Christian Diez Friedrich Christian Diez (; 15 March 179429 May 1876) was a German philologist. The two works on which his fame rests are the ''Grammar of the Romance Languages'' (published 1836–1844), and the ''Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages ...

. One of his noteworthy achievements was the definite establishment of the

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

transmission of the

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

.Legends and Romances of Brittany
by Lewis Spence

Works

His numerous publications of the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

works include: * ''Aiol et Mirabel und Elie de Saint-Gille'' (1876–1882); two Early French epic poems with notes and glossary and an appendix. * ''Li Chevaliers as deus espees'' (1877); an Old French romance. * ''Altfranzösische Bibliothek'', volumes i-xi (1879–87) – Old French library. * ''Romanische Bibliothek'', volumes i-xx (1888–1913) – Romance library. * ''Die sämmtlichen Werke von Christian von Troyes'', volumes i-iv (1884–99) – Collected works of Chrétien de Troyes. * ''Wörterbuch zu Christian von Troyes'' (1914) – Dictionary of Chrétien de Troyes.

References

*
OCLC WorldCat
published works

External links

* * Philologists from Austria-Hungary 1844 births Academic staff of the University of Bonn Academic staff of Charles University University of Vienna alumni People from Jeseník District 1915 deaths Austrian medievalists {{Germany-linguist-stub