Heinrich Jacob Bashuysen (October 26, 1679 – c. 1750) was a German Christian printer of Hebrew books and Orientalist. Bashuysen was born at

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. He founded a printing-establishment in his native city between 1709 and 1712; and over 100 publications were issued from his press. He was a zealous promoter of Hebrew and

rabbinical Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

literature; and, among other works, he translated extracts from the rabbinical commentaries to the ''

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

'' (Hanau, 1712). In one of his dissertations he translated a part of the ''

Mishneh Torah The ''Mishneh Torah'' (), also known as ''Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka'' (), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law (''halakha'') authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam). The ''Mishneh Torah'' was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE ( ...

'' of

Moses Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle A ...

(Hanover, 1705; Frankfort, 1708); and it was his intention to translate the whole work, as well as the Hebrew grammar ''Shoresh Yehudah'', by Juda Neumark, director of Bashuysen's printing-office in Hanau. Bashuysen published

Abravanel The Abravanel family ( ''ʾAbravanʾēl'' or ''ʾAbarbənʾēl''), also spelled as ''Abarbanel'', ''Abrabanel'', ''Avravanel'', ''Barbernell'', or ''Barbanel'' literally meaning ''Ab'' ("father") ''rabban'' ("priest") ''el'' ("of God") is one of ...

's commentaries on the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

, and intended to edit the entire work in four volumes. He also entertained the idea of amplifying

Otho Otho ( ; born Marcus Salvius Otho; 28 April 32 – 16 April 69) was Roman emperor, ruling for three months from 15 January to 16 April 69. He was the second emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors. A member of a noble Etruscan civilization, ...

's ''Historia Doctorum Mishnicorum'' by adding the

Amoraim ''Amoraim'' ( , singular ''Amora'' ; "those who say" or "those who speak over the people", or "spokesmen") refers to Jewish scholars of the period from about 200 to 500 CE, who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral Torah. They were p ...

. Among Bashuysen's other works may be mentioned: *"Panegyricus Hebr. de Ling. Hebr." (Hanover, 1706; also in German, ib. 1706) *"Institutiones Gemarico-Rabbin." (Hanover, 1718) *"Exercit. Paradoxa de Nova Methodo Discendi per Rabbinos Ling. Hebr." (Servestæ, 1720). In 1701 he was appointed ordinary professor of Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history at the Protestant gymnasium of Hanau, and in 1703 became professor of theology in that institution (Bashuysen's father was preacher in the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

of the city). In 1716 he accepted the position of rector and "professor primarius" at the gymnasium of

Zerbst Zerbst () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until an administrative reform in 2007, Zerbst was the capital of the former Anhalt-Zerbst district. Geography Zerbst is sit ...

. Bashuysen was a member of the Academy of Berlin and of the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

References

*Bernhardi, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographien, s.v. Bashuysen; *

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 4521, 9338; *idem, Bibl. Handbuch, p. 18; *idem, in Zeit. f. Hebr. Bibl. ii. 51 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bashuysen, Heinrich Jacob German printers 1679 births 1750s deaths