Mogens Trolle Larsen
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Temple Hall
Benno Landsberger (1890–1968) was the most celebrated Assyriologist of his time. I first met him in 1967–68 in Chicago, when he was an old man. He was hugely respected, yet seemed to have no close friends there. My own experience was of a rather difficult man, not always amiable, and someone about whom bizarre stories were told. How did he become the Landsberger we know?
In the Royal Library in Copenhagen lies a cache of letters he wrote to his friend Johannes Pedersen, a Semitist who had studied in Leipzig, where Landsberger had been a fellow student. Their correspondence lasted from 1910, when Landsberger was twenty, until 1957. These letters offer an intriguing insight into the young Landsberger, shedding light on his personal life and on his scholarly development during the years in which he formed his fundamental approach to the field.
Prof. Dr Mogens Trolle Larsen is Associate Professor Emeritus of Assyriology at the University of Copenhagen.
The Veenhof Lecture 2026 will be held as a hybrid event. Please join us!
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Image: Clay tablet from Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) in Turkey; Old Assyrian text (© Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, inv.no. kt 94/k 896).
The Veenhof Lecture is organized every November by the Netherlands Institute for the Near East in cooperation with the National Museum of Antiquities. Named after Prof. K.R. Veenhof (1935-2023) and honouring his contributions to Assyriology, the annual lecture is aimed at colleagues and students, as well as a broader public. The speaker is an internationally renowned scholar. All are welcome to attend the lecture.
De Veenhof-lezing werd in mei 2002 in het leven geroepen, naar aanleiding van het afscheid van professor Klaas Veenhof (1935-2023) als hoogleraar talen en geschiedenis van Babylonië en Assyrië aan de Universiteit Leiden. De lezing wordt jaarlijks georganiseerd door het NINO i.s.m. het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. Alle geïnteresseerden zijn van harte uitgenodigd.
Spreker: prof. dr. Mogens Trolle Larsen, emeritus universitair hoofddocent Assyriologie aan de Universiteit van Kopenhagen.