Andrew Sly wrote:
My first thought was to send this question deirectly to you, but I thought I'd send it out as a general request instead as you might be rather busy already.
No, I will not "assume" that these two are the same. Making assumptions is not a good idea in this kind of case. If there is uncertainty, I would say leave them separate.
I take it the line you quote below does give further evidence of this person's identity?
The title page of one of the books declares it to be a doctoral dissertation by Dr. Whatshisname, Berne 1910. Wikipedia says this guy actually studied in Berne around that date, the names are very similar, and the topic of the dissertation is Serbia ... I think we can safely assume it is the same person.
"Bis 1908 studierte er an der altkatholischen Fakultät der Universität Bern, wo er die Doktorwürde in Philosophie erlangte."
He studied philosophy in Berne until 1908, where he took his degree.
-- Marcello Perathoner webmaster@gutenberg.org