Leopold Dukes was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 critic of Jewish literature

Jewish literature

Jewish Literature refers to works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works of various themes written in Jewish languages, or literary works in other languages written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature and rabbinic literature...

.

Biography

Dukes spent about 20 years in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and from his researches in the Bodleian library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 and the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 (which contain two of the most valuable Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 libraries in the world) Dukes was able to complete the work of Leopold Zunz

Leopold Zunz

Leopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...

. The most popular work of Dukes was his Rabbinische Blumenlese (1844), in which he collected the rabbinic

Rabbinic literature

Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term...

 proverb

Proverb

A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...

s and illustrated them from the gnomic literatures of other peoples.

Dukes made many contributions to philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

, but his best work was connected with the medieval Hebrew poetry, especially Ibn Gabirol.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia entry written by Isidore Singer
  Isidore Singer
  Isidore Singer was an editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man.-Biography:...
  
   & Isaac Broydé
  Isaac Broydé
  Isaac David Broydé was a Jewish Orientalist and librarian.-Life:...
  
  

See also

• Adolf Dux
  Adolf Dux
  Adolf Dux was a Hungarian Jewish writer and journalist.He was cousin of Leopold Dukes. He studied law and philosophy at the University of Vienna, and was connected with the "Pressburger Zeitung" until 1855, when he became a correspondent of the "Pester Lloyd".He translated Alexander Petöfi's and...