Alfred Theophil Holder (4 April 1840 – 12 January 1916) was an Austrian philologist, historian, and librarian. A specialist of Latin literature and Roman history, he is best known for his editions of Horace, Caesar, Tacitus, and Avianus, as well as for his three-volume lexicon of ancient Celtic languages entitled Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz (1891–1913).[1][2]
Alfred Theophil Holder was born on 4 April 1840 in Vienna, the son of Gottlieb Holder (1806–1845), a painter, and Natalie Rheinboldt. He studied classical and German philology at the universities of Bonn and Heidelberg, then continued his education in Paris. From 1863 he worked as a schoolteacher in Rastatt, the Netherlands and in Ladenburg. In 1867 he joined the Grand Ducal Baden Court and State Library in Karlsruhe, where he became a librarian in 1870. In 1904, he became head of the manuscript department and in 1911 was appointed director.[3]
From 1895 to 1918, he authored volumes 3, 5–7 of the Die Handschriften der Grossherzoglich Badischen Hof- und Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe (The manuscripts of the Grand Ducal Baden Court and State Library in Karlsruhe).[4] He died on 12 January 1916 in Karlsruhe.[3]
