Hiob or Job Ludolf ( la, Iobus Ludolfus or '; 15 June 1624– 8 April 1704), also known as Job Leutholf, was a German
orientalist, born at
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
.
Edward Ullendorff
Edward Ullendorff (1920–2011) was a British scholar and historian. He was a prominent figure in Ethiopian Studies and also contributed work on the Semitic languages.
Biography
Born on 25 January 1920 in Zurich, Switzerland, Ullendorff was e ...
rates Ludolf as having "the most illustrious name in
Ethiopic scholarship".
Life
After studying
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
at the Erfurt academy and at
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
, he travelled in order to increase his
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
knowledge. While searching in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
for some documents at the request of the
Swedish Court (1649), he became friends with
Abba Gorgoryos
Abba Gorgoryos ( Ge'ez: አባ ጎርጎርዮስ; 1595 – 1658) was an Ethiopian priest and lexicographer of noble origin. He is famous for co-authoring encyclopedias with his friend and companion Hiob Ludolf in two Ethiopian languages, Amhari ...
, a monk from the
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n province of
Amhara, and acquired from him an intimate knowledge of the
Ethiopian language of Amhara.
In 1652 he entered the service of the duke of
Saxe-Gotha
Saxe-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Gotha) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in the former Landgraviate of Thuringia. The ducal residence was erected at Gotha.
History
The duchy was established in 1640, wh ...
, in which he continued until 1678, when he retired to
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. In 1683 he visited
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to promote a cherished scheme for establishing trade with Ethiopia, but his efforts were unsuccessful, chiefly due to the resistance of the authorities of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Returning to Frankfurt in 1684, he devoted himself wholly to literary work, which he continued almost to his death. In 1690 he was appointed president of the
Collegium Imperiale Historicum.
His correspondence with
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...
on linguistics was published in 1755 by August Benedict Michaelis.
Ludolf died at Frankfurt.
Works
The works of Ludolf, who is said to have been acquainted with twenty-five languages, include ''Sciagraphia historiae aethiopicae'' (Jena, 1676); and the ''Historia aethiopica'' (Frankfort, 1681), which has been translated into English, French and Dutch, and which was supplemented by a ''Commentarius'' (1691) and by ''Appendices'' (1693–1694). According to Ullendorff, Ludolf's
:Ethiopic and Amharic dictionaries and grammars were of importance far transcending his own time and remained, for well over a century and a half, the indispensable tools for the study of these languages, while his monumental history of Ethiopia (with an extensive commentary) can still be read with profit as well as enjoyment.
[Ullendorff, p. 11]
Among his other works are:
*''Grammatica linguae amharicae'' (Frankfort, 1698)
*''Lexicon amharico-latinum'' (Frankfort, 1698)
*''Lexicon aethiopico-latinum'' (Frankfort, 1699)
*''Grammatica aethiopica'' (London, 1661, and Frankfort, 1702)
* His posthumously published ''Allgemeine Schau-Bühne der Welt'' (1713 in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
) is noted for the detailed account given of 1652
Batih massacre, a
mass execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
captives by
Ukrainian Cossacks
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...
.
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Christian Juncker, ''Commentarius de vita et scriptis Jobi Ludolfi'' (Frankfort, 1710)
*
Ludwig Diestel, ''Geschichte des alten Testaments in der christlichen Kirche'' (Jena, 1868)
*
Johannes Flemming, "Hiob Ludolf," in the ''Beiträge zur Assyriologie'' (Leipzig, 1890-1891)
*
* John T. Waterman (1978), ''Leibniz and Ludolf on Things Linguistic: Excerpts from Their Correspondence (1688-1703)''. translated and edited with commentary and notes. Berkeley: University of California Publications in Linguistics 88.
*
External links
*
*
Pictures from a supplementary volume to Ludolf's ''Historia Aethiopica''i
Early Printed Books at St. John's College Librarywebsite.
Psalterium Davidis aethiopice et latineat th
Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)
Hiob Ludolfi
die Erfurt-Enzyklopädiewebsite.
*
Nouvelle histoire d'Abyssinie ou d'Ethiopie tirée de l'histoire latine'—a French translation of Ludolf's ''Historia aethiopica'' (Paris 1684) in
Gallica, the digital library of the
Bibliothèque nationale de France (
PDF).
* ''A new history of Ethiopia being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously, called the Empire of Prester John'' by the learned Job Ludolphus, translated out of his learned manuscript commentary on this history (1684) available o
Early English Books Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludolf, Hiob
1624 births
1704 deaths
History of Ethiopia
Ethiopianists
German orientalists
German philologists
Writers from Erfurt
17th-century German writers
German male non-fiction writers
17th-century German male writers