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Lost Indian grammar manuscript rediscovered in Italian library
Jun 21, 2010, 17:04 GMT
Berlin - A lost manuscript, one of the earliest by a missionary to detail the ancient Indian language of Old Sanskrit, has been rediscovered in an Italian library, the University of Potsdam in Germany said Monday.
Toon Van Haal of Belgium tracked down the Grammatica Grandonica in a Carmelite monastery library near Rome.
The manuscript not only reveals how western grammarians thought in the 18th century, but is also likely to offer indirect evidence of what Indian grammarians said about Sanskrit at that time.
The manuscript was compiled in Kerala, India by Johann Ernst Hanxleben, a German Jesuit priest who spoke fluent Malayalam, between 1701 and 1732. It had not been heard of for decades.
The German university began a Europe-wide hunt for the lost book as part of plans to put digital copies of key online Renaissance grammar works on the internet.
Van Haal's University of Leuven said the book was found in the Convento di San Silvestro in Montecomprati.
Old Sanskrit is revered in the west as the oldest branch of the Indo-European family of languages, which include English, French and Persian.
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