David Diringer (16 June 1900 – 13 February 1975) was a British linguist, palaeographer and writer. He was the author of several well-known books about writing systems.
Biography
Diringer was born to Jacob Munzer and Mirl Diringer on 16 June 1900, in Tlumacz – at that time considered part of Austria, later Poland, but now Tlumach, Ukraine. He stayed in Tlumacz through high school but moved to Italy to earn, in 1927, his Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Florence. This was followed, in 1929, by a diploma in ancient history. He was appointed a professor at Florence (1931–1933), his first academic interest being the culture of the Etruscans. He did excavations in Tuscany from 1930 to 1939. In England he was at first, as an Italian citizen, interned on the Isle of Man as an "enemy alien." But he was released in November 1940 William F. Albright had this to say in his review: "This great work ... will certainly displace all other books in its field for some time to come, at least for librarians and general readers. It contains an extraordinary mass of material in over 600 compactly printed pages...."
Diringer died in Cambridge, England, an emeritus professor at Cambridge, on 13 February 1975 and was survived by his wife Elena (née Cecchini), and daughter Kedma.
The following biography appears on the back dust-jacket flap of Writing (1962):
See also his obituary in the (London) Times 19th February 1975
Bibliography
- The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind;
- History of the Alphabet, 1977;
- The Alphabet,
- The Illuminated Book;
- Writing [Its Origins and Early History], 1962. New York: Praeger (Volume 25 in the series, Ancient Peoples and Places)
- The Story of the Aleph Beth, 1958
- The Hand-produced Book. New York: Philosophical Library, 1953.