Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/674

602 seems to have well deserved the title which was conferred upon him of "Master of the Rabbins." His partiality for Jewish society exposed him, indeed, on one occasion to considerable annoyance. He had received a Jew named Abraham into his house in order to assist him in the editing of his great Rabbinical Bible. Abraham's wife was confined of a boy, whose circumcision, agreeably to Hebrew usage, had to take place on the eighth day after birth, and it was necessary that at least two Jewish witnesses should be present at the ceremony. Buxtorf obtained permission from the chief officer of the town council to allow two Jews from a distance to assist on the occasion, while he himself, his son-in-law, and two citizens of Basel, were also present. This proceeding, however, gave great offence to the authorities of the city, the laws against the Jews being at this time exceedingly stringent. The result was that Buxtorf and his son-in-law were each fined 100 florins, the father of the boy 400 florins, while the officer of the municipality and the two citizens were punished with three days imprisonment. Notwithstanding this occurrence, however, Buxtorf's relations with the city of Basel were of a friendly kind. He remained firmly attached to the university which first recognized his merits, and declined two invitations which were offered him, from Leyden and Saumur successively, to fill the Hebrew chair in these famous schools. His correspondence with the most distinguished scholars of the day was very extensive, and in the rich collection of letters preserved in the library of the university of Basel, are contained materials for a literary history of the time which it is hoped may be one day utilized.

The works which Buxtorf published during his life are too numerous to be all enumerated in this brief notice, and for a complete list of them the reader is referred to the authorities cited at the close of the article. The following, however, may be mentioned. In 1602 appeared his Manuale Hebraicum et Chaldaicum, which reached a seventh edition in the year 1658. In the following year was published his Synagoga, Judaica, which appeared first in German and was afterwards translated into Latin in an enlarged form, and which constitutes a valuable repertory of information regarding the opinions and ceremonies of the Jews. In 1607 he published his Lexicon Hebraicum ct Chaldaicum cum brcvi Lcxico Rabbinico PMIosopliico, which was reprinted at Glasgow so recently as 1824. In 1618 there appeared in two folio volumes his great Rabbinical Bible, containing, in addition to the Hebrew text, the Chaldee Paraphrases or Targums, which he punctuated after the analogy of the Chaldee passages in Ezra and Daniel (a proceeding which has been condemned by Richard Simon and others), and the Commentaries of the more celebrated Rabbins, with various other treatises. Of this work it may be said that Rosenmuller's judgment will approve itself to most Hebrew scholars, that "this edition is indispensable to every one who desires thoroughly to study the criticism and exposition of the Old Testament." (Rosenmuller, Handbuch fur die Literatur dcr Biblisclien Kritik und Exegese, vol. i. p. 259). The Bible was followed by his Tiberias, sive Commcntarius Masorcticus, so named from the great school of Jewish criticism which had its seat in the town of Tiberias. It was in this work that Buxtorf controverted the views of Elias Levita regarding the late origin of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the. famous controversy between Cappellus and his son John Buxtorf, which will be referred to in the following article. Buxtorf did not live to complete the two works on which his reputation chiefly rests, viz., his great Lexicon Ohaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Rabbinicum, and the Concordanticc Bibliorum Hebraicorum, both of which were edited by his son. They are monuments of untiring, labour and industry, and possess an enduring value. The former work has been recently (1869) republished at Leipsic with some additions by Bernard Fischer, Ph.D., and the latter was assumed by Fürst as the basis of his great Hebrew concordance, which appeared in 1840. For additional information regarding his writings the reader is referred to Athcncc Rauricce, pp. 444-448; to the article "Buxtorf" in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopaedia; to the Theological Cyclopaedias of Herzog, and of Wetzer and De "Welte, sub voce "Buxtorf"; to Niceron's Memoircs, vol. xxxi. pp. 206-215; to Sclu-okh sKirchengcschichte, vol. v. (PostReformation period) pp. 72 sq., Leipsic, 1806; and to Meyer's Gcschichte der Sclirift-Erkliiruiuj, vol. iii., Gottingen, 1804.

 BUXTORF, or (1599–1664), commonly called "junior," to distinguish him from his father, the subject of. He was born at Basel on the 13th August 1599, and at a very early age displayed remarkable aptitude for the acquisition of languages. When only four years old he was sent to school, at which age he is said to have been able to read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in which he had been instructed by his father. At the age of twelve he entered the university, where ho speedily distinguished himself above not only his equals, but his seniors in years, to so great a degree that when only sixteen he received the diploma of master of arts from the hands of his own father. From this time he devoted himself to the study of theology, turning his atten tion especially to the Hebrew language and its cognate dialects, and then proceeding to the study of rabbinical Hebrew, in which he soon attained such proficiency, that he is said, while still a young man, to have read through not only the Mishna, but also the Jerusalem and Babylonian Gemaras, or commentaries upon the text of the Talmud. In conformity with the excellent custom, so long prevalent on the Continent, of visiting several universities before finally settling down to life-long professional work, Buxtorf proceeded to Heidelberg in 1617, where he listened to the prelections of the theologians Pareus, Scultetus, and the elder Alting. In 1619 he repaired to Dort, while the famous Synod was still sitting, and there made the acquaintance of many of the divines who took part in its proceedings. At the close of the Synod he made a short journey in company with the deputies from Basel, through the Netherlands and England, and thence through France back to Basel. On his return he found that his father's great Rabbinical Bible was in course of publication, and as there was no lexicon suitable for the study of the Chaldee Targums, comprised in the work, he undertook the compilation of such a lexicon, which appeared at Basel in 1622 under the title of Lexicon Chaldaicum et Syriacum, with a recommendatory preface from his father, detailing the circumstances under which the work had been executed. Still thirsting for knowledge, he repaired in 1623 to Geneva, to enjoy the instructions of the elder Turretin, Diodati, and Tronchin; while in return Turretin and Dav. Clericus did not disdain to avail themselves as pupils of his pre-eminent knowledge of Hebrew and of the rabbinical dialect. So great by this time had become his reputation as a scholar, that he was offered by the authorities of the city of Bern the chair of logic at Lausanne, which he declined, preferring to return to Basel, where in 1624, he was appointed general deacon to the church of Basel (Communis Ecclesice Basileensis Diaconus), and three years later deacon of St Peter's church. On the death of his father in 1629, Buxtorf was unanimously designated as the fittest person to succeed so distinguished a Hebraist; and by the advice of his physicians, who were of opinion that the labours involved in the discharge of the duties of a public preacher would be injurious to one whose constitution was feeble, he finally accepted the office. From this date until his death he remained at Basel, declining two offers which were made to him from Groningen and Leyden, to accept the Hebrew chair in these two celebrated schools. To mark their appreciation of his patriotic conduct, the governing body of the university founded in 1647, specially for his behoof, a third theological professorship, that of "Commonplaces and Controversies," the duties of which Buxtorf discharged for seven years along with those of the Hebrew chair. When, however, the professorship of the Old Testament became vacant in 1654 by the death of Theodore Zuinger, Buxtorf resigned the chair of theology, and accepted that of the Old Testament instead, holding both offices, and for some time that also of chief librarian to the university, until his death in 1664. The course of his private life was chequered by many domestic bereavements. He was four times married