Buxtorf, JOHANN

Buxtorf, JOHANN, Hebraist, was born in 1564 at Kamen, in Westphalia; in 1591 became professor of Hebrew at Basel, and died there of the plague in 1629. In a knowledge of rabbinical literature, he surpassed all his contemporaries. The most important of his numerous works, the Lexicon Chaldaicum Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, was completed by his son (Basel, 1640), and has been recast by Fischer and Gelbe (2 vols. Leip. 1866-74). See Life by Kautzsch (1879).—His son, JOHANN, was born at Basel in 1599, and at five years of age—according to his rather credulous biographers—could read German, Latin, and Hebrew. To perfect his knowledge of these tongues he visited Holland, France, and Germany; and in 1630 he succeeded his father in the chair of Hebrew at Basel, where he died in 1664. He published a number of treatises, commentaries, and translations. His son, Jakob (1645-1704), and his nephew, Johann (1665-1732), both succeeded to the Hebrew professorship.