KENNICOTT, BENJAMIN, an eminent biblical scholar of the last century. was b. at Totness, in Devonshire, Aprif4, 1718, and educated at Oxford, where he highly distin guished himself. He took his degree of M.A. in 1750, having been previously elected a fellow of Exeter college; in 1767 he was appointed Radcliffe librarian; and in 1770 canon of Christ church, Oxford, where he died, Sept. 18, 1783. The whole interest and importance of Kennicott's life are comprised in his great for the improve. ment of the Hebrew text. In 1753 he published a work entitled The State of the Printed Hebrew Texi of the Old Testament Considered. This contained, among other things, obser vations on 70 Hebrew MSS.. with an extract of mistakes and various readings, and strongly enforced the necessity for a much more extensive collation, in order to ascer tain or approximate towards a correct Hebrew text. He undertook to execute the work in the course of 10 years, and labored;-until his health broke down, from 10 to 14 hours a day. In spite of considerable opposition from bishops Warburton, Horne, and other
divines, Kenuicott succeeded in enlisting the sympathies and obtaining the support of the clergy generally. Upwards of 600 Hebrew MSS., and 16 MSS. of the Samaritan Pentateuch, were collated, with tha assistance of other English and continental scholars. The first volume of his edition of the Hebrew Bibie appeared in 1776, and the second in 1780, accompanied by a very useful and instructive dissertation. The text chosen was that of Van der Hooght, and the various readings were printed at the bottom of the page. The Yarim Leetiones Veteris frestamenti (Parma, 1784-88), publihed by De Rossi, is a valuable addition to Kennicott's Hebrew Bible. Jahn published at Vienna (1806) a very correct abridgment, embracing the most important of Kennicott's readings.