page_title: Johann Kaspar Zeuss
section_title: Influence
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Kaspar Zeuss / Influence
caption_attribution_description: Grabmal von Johann Kaspar Zeuß
context_page_description: Johann Kaspar Zeuss was a German historian and founder of Celtic philology. He is credited with demonstrating that the Celtic languages belong to the Indo-European group.
context_section_description: Zeuss was a scholar of great erudition, combining a knowledge of philology with history and ethnology. His Germanic studies had taught him the necessity of knowing Celtic languages, and he went to work to investigate this neglected field. To get at the sources, the old manuscripts, particularly those in Old Irish, he journeyed to Karlsruhe, Würzburg, St. Gallen, Milan, London, and Oxford, and everywhere made extracts or copies. Both ancient and modern dialects received his attention. His Grammatica Celtica proved beyond doubt that the Celtic languages were a group of the Indo-European family, which put Celtic philology on a sound scientific basis. After the author's death the work was revised and re-edited by Hermann Ebel (Berlin, 1871). Other works by Zeuss are Traditiones possessionesque Wirzenburgenses (1842) and Die Freie Reichstadt Speyer vor ihrer Zerstörung (The Free Imperial City of Speyer before its Destruction).
  De Barra (2018, page 26) writes that Zeuss "brought rigorous scientific methodologies and a sense of scholarly gravitas to the study of indigenous languages of Britain and Ireland....something the field had lacked before....in his wake universities in Britain and Europe devoted more resources to the study of Celtic matters".
caption: Statue of Zeuss in Kronach.
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