[INDOLOGY] Jerry Losty

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I am very saddened to hear about Jerry's passing.  I knew him well, and was
privileged to be his apprentice at the British Museum for two summers, back
in the 1970s when I was an undergraduate.  I learned so very much from
Jerry: he introduced me to bibliography, cataloguing, manuscript studies,
the history of Indian miniature painting, and museum curatorship.  I was
very lucky indeed to encounter him at such an early moment in my
Indological life.  What Jerry taught me has strongly informed my thinking
about Indological subjects to this day.

In later years, Jerry was, for me, one of those deeply learned
resource-people, someone I could turn to for a reliably good answer when I
was stuck.  I consulted with him earlier this year, in April, and he wrote
to me with characteristic engagement,

Dear Dominik
An interesting manuscript I don't think I've come across before.

and continued with several characteristically insightful and helpful
observations, before ending with good wishes for surviving the Canadian
winters.  He gave no hint of feeling unwell.
I last met Jerry and his wife Kate, herself a talented conservationist of
bookbinding, in a lovely Viennese restaurant in May 2014, the Restaurant
Chamäleon. We strolled over to the Hawelka for digestives.  It was lovely.

In one of his emails to me, he specifically pointed me to his page at
Academia.edu <https://bl.academia.edu/JeremiahLosty>, where he maintained a
list of most of his publications, including many downloadable ones.   While
his publications show his extraordinary breadth and insight as an art
historian, Jerry was originally trained in Sanskrit and Pali at Oxford and
was fully able to read the manuscripts whose paintings interested him.

I will miss him greatly.

Best wishes,
Dominik
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