Background
He was born at Ebnat, Switzerland in 1819. His father, a German, was chaplain to King Leopold I of Belgium, and Jean Scheler, after studying at Bonn and Munich, became King's librarian, and professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
Career
The most important of his numerous philological works are: Memoire sur la conjugaison franqaise ccnsideree sous le rapport ёtymologique (Brussels, 1847), Dictionnaire d'etymologie franqaise d'aprks les r&sultats de la science moderne (Brussels, 1862), Etude sur la transformation franqaise des mots latins (Ghent, 1869). He also edited the fourth edition of Diez's Etymologisches Worterbuch der romanischen Sprachen (Bonn, 1878), ana completed Grandgagnage's Dictionnaire btymologique de la langue wallonne (Louvain, 1880). He also published several critical editions of middle ages texts, including one of Les Poesies de Froissart (Brussels, 1870 - 1872), and a monograph Sur le sejour de Vapotre saint Pierre A Rome (Brussels, 1845), which was translated into German and English.