Subject: Re: [HM] Was Cantor of Jewish descent? (was: Poetry and Mathematics)
From: Gordon Fisher (gfisher@shentel.net)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 10:19:44 EST
I have been kindly informed in a private message from Germany of a mistake
I made in translating passages from the book about Georg Cantor by Burkert
and Ilgauds, which I correct below.
At 08:13 PM 12/20/99, Gordon Fisher wrote:
[deletion]
> And then:
>
> "Auch jahrelange Bemuehungen des Bibliothekars JOSEF FISCHER, des besten
> Kenners der juedischen Genealogie in Daenemark, im Auftrag juedischer
> Professoren nachzuweisen, dass GEORGE CANTOR juedischer Abstammung war,
> verliefen ergednislos [3, Nr. 36].
[should be GEORG here, not GEORGE]
[deletion]
> ("Also efforts for a long time by the librarian Josef Fischer, one of the
> best experts on Jewish genealogy in Denmark, charged with identifying
> Jewish professors, that Georg Cantor was of Jewish descent, finished
> without result. [Something seems to be wrong with this sentence, but the
> meaning seems clear enough.]
I read "juedischer Professoren" as if it were "juedische Professoren".
Corrected translation:
("Also efforts for a long time by the librarian Josef Fischer, one of
the best experts on Jewish genealogy in Denmark, charged by Jewish
professors to prove that Georg Cantor was of Jewish descent, finished
without result.")
Also "finished without result" might be more felicitously translated as
"were concluded without success".
My informant supplied the following translation into English of the
relevant part: "Efforts by Josef Fischer (who was asked to do so by jewish
professors) to prove that ..., did not give any results."
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net
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