[2] He was educated at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, graduating in 1847, in which year he also published a treatise on Sanskrit accent (De Accentu Sancritico,[3] Bonn, 1847), originally his dissertation.
In 1852 he moved to Oxford to assist Friedrich Max Muller in preparation of his edition of Rigveda with Sāyaṇa's commentary.
[4] He studied at the Bodleian Library and prepared a catalogue of its collection of Sanskrit manuscripts (Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum bibl.
Between 1891 and 1903, he published a three volume alphabetical catalogue of all Sanskrit manuscript collections known at the time, in a work titled, Catalogus Catalogorum.
Beginning in 1935, the University of Madras began working on an updated catalogue called the New Catalogus Catalogorum, which was completed in 2019 with the publication of its 42nd volume.