BUXTORF, JOHANN, the prince of Hebrew scholars, was born at Camen in Westphalia, 25th Dec. 1564. The proper name of his family was Bockstrop, and hence the goat (bock) in their arms. He was educated first at Marburg and Herborn, where he enjoyed the instructions of Olevian and Piscator ; afterwards he went to Heidelberg, to Basle, to Zitrich, and to Geneva, for the prosecu tion of his studies, and had the advantage succes sively of the teaching of Grynmus, Hospinian, Bullinger, and Beza. In 1590 he became professor of Hebrew at Basle, and from that time devoted himself with unremitting zeal and diligence to the study of the Hebrew language, literature, and antiquities. Such was his proficiency in all matters lying within this department, that it is said even the Jews themselves resorted to him for counsel in cases of doubt as to any of their institutions. Certain it is that no Christian ever more thoroughly made himself master of all that could be gathered from Jewish sources belonging to the philology, criticism, and archaeology of the 0. T. His works in this department are numerous. His earliest publication was his Manuale Hebruicum, Bas. 1602, and after this followed his Synagoga Judaica, first published in German, Bas. 1603, then in Latin, from the translation of Hermann Germberg, Hanov. 1604, and ultimately from the translation of David Clericus, with the revision of Buxtorf himself and his son, Bas. 1641. His other works are, Epitome Gram. Heb., Bas. 1605 ; Epitome cum Heb. et Chald., Bas. 1607; Lexicon Heb. el
Chald, cum bwvi lexico Rabbin. Philos., Bas. 1607; Thesaurus Gram. Heb., Bas. 1609; De Abbrevia turis fhb., Bas. 1613 ; Gram. Chald. et Syriac. Bas. 1615 ; Biblia Reb. corn paraphrasi Chald. et C0771MelliarliS Rabbinorum, 2 vols. fol., Bas. 1618; Tiberias sive Comment. Masorethicus, Bas. 1620, appended to the later editions of the Biblia Heb.; Concordantiarum Heb., an unfinished work, on which he was engaged at the time of his death, and which was completed by his son, Bas. 1632. The editions above mentioned of these works are the earliest ; most of them have passed through so many editions that to enumerate them is impossible. His collection of Jewish writings, with the addi tions of his son and grandson, was purchased in 1705, for 1000 thalers (£150) for the library at Basle, where it is still preserved. All subsequent writers on Hebrew Grammar, Philology, and Lexicography, have been deeply indebted to the labours of Buxtorf, and the value of his contribu tions to sound philology in general is such as fully to justify the words of Prideaux, who says, 'The world is more beholden to Buxtorf for his learned and judicious labours than to any other man that lived in his time, and his name ought ever to be preserved with honour in acknowledgment of it' (Connection ii. 555, 8th ed.). Buxtorf fell a victim to the plague, which carried him off 13th Sept. 1629.—W. L. A.