Having known him personally
and intimately for many years, I shall attempt such sketch, making much
of it anecdotal, for which purpose material is not wanting.
Dr. Neumann, born near Bamberg, in the kingdom of Bavaria, of Jewish
parents, is now about sixty-five years of age, was educated at
Heidelberg, passed over to the Protestant church at Munich, afterward
attended lectures at Goettingen, and soon after became rector of the
gymnasium at Speyer, but was dismissed from this place on account of the
freedom with which he expressed himself on some religious topics in his
historical teachings. He gave private lessons for a time in Munich, and
then went to learn in a Benedictine monastery in Venice the Armenian
language. This was in 1827. In 1829 he studied the Chinese language in
Paris, went over to London, and sailed thence to visit India and China.
He collected for himself about ten thousand volumes of Chinese works,
embracing every department of the literature of this language, and
bought for the Royal Library at Berlin two thousand four hundred
volumes. Such collections had been till then unknown in Europe, and
hence this was quite an event. Returning in 1831 from India, he made a
present of all his Chinese books to the Royal Library at Munich, and was
appointed conservator of this collection, and professor of Chinese and
Armenian in the university of that capital.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128