Paulinus A St. Bartholomaeus
Paulinus A St. Bartholomaeus [1]
a noted Orientalist, of the Order of the Carmelites, whose original name was John Philip Werdin was born near Mannersdorf, in Austria, April 25, 1748. He studied philosophy and theology at Prague, and afterwards learned some of the Oriental languages in the college of his order at Rome, which he had joined in 1769. He was sent as missionary to the coast of Malabar in 1774, where he remained for fourteen years. and was successively appointed vicar-general and apostolic visitor. In 1790 he returned to Rome, in order to superintend the religious works which were printed by the Propaganda for the use of the missionaries in Hindostan. He died at Rome Jan. 7, 1806.
Paulinus was one of the earliest Europeans who acquired a knowledge of the Sanscrit language. In consequence of his being settled in the south of Hindostan, he could not obtain so accurate a knowledge of the Sanscrit as if he had been brought in contact with the Brahmins, but he nevertheless gained quite a mastery of the tongue, and even published a Sanscrit grammar (in the Tamul characters instead of the Devanagari) at Rome in 1790, under the title of Sidharubam, senu Grammatica Samscridamica, cum Dissertatione historicocritica in Linguam Samscridamicam; and also in a fuller and different form in 1804, under the title of Vyacarana, seu locupletissima Samscridamicae Linguae Institutio; but both these works are entirely superseded by later, more accurate, and complete grammars. Paulinus also wrote and edited many other works, of which the most important are, Systema Brahmanicum litsrgicum, mythologicum, civile, ex monumentis Indicis, etc., dissertatiotibus histuricis illustratum (Rome, 1791): — India Orientalis Christiana, continens Fundationes Ecclesiaruls, Seriem Episcoporum, Missiones, Schismata, Persecutiones, Viros illustres (ibid. 1794): — Viaggio alle Indie Orientali (ibid. 1796): — Amarashinha, seu Dictionarii Samscridamici sectio prima, de Ccelo; ex tribus ineditis Codicibus Inlicis Manuscriptis, cum Versione Latina (ibid. 1798) (the whole of this dictionary, of which Paulinus has edited the first part, was printed at Seram pore, in 1808, under the care of Colebrooke): De Antiquitate et Affnitate Linguce Zendicce et Samscridamicoe Germanicoe Dissertatio (ibid. 1798; Padua, 1799):and De Latini Sermonii Origine et cum Orientalibus Linguis Connexione (Rome, 1802). See Darling, Cyclop. Bibliogr. 2:2313.
