Hermann von der Hardt (November 15, 1660 – February 28, 1746) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and orientalist. He was born at Melle, in

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

(now in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

). He studied oriental languages at the universities of Jena and

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, and in 1690 he was called to the chair of oriental languages at

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage o ...

. He resigned his position in 1727, but lived at

until his death. Among his numerous writings the following deserve mention: *''Autographa Lutheri aliorumque celebrium virorum, ab anno 1517 ad annum 1546, Reformationis aetatem et historiam egregie iliustrantia'' (1690–1691) *''Magnum oecumenicum Constantiense concilium'' (1697–1700) *''Hebraeae linguae fundamenta'' (1694) *''Syriacae linguae fundamenta'' (1694) *''Elementa Chaldaica'' (1693) *''Historia litteraria reformationis'' (1717) *''Enigmata prisci orbis'' (1723) Hardt left in manuscript a history of the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

which is preserved in the Helmstedt Juleum.

References

* Ferdinand Lamey, ''Hermann von der Hardt in seinen Briefen'' (Karlsruhe, 1891). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardt, Hermann von der 1660 births 1746 deaths People from Melle, Germany German orientalists University of Jena alumni Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of the University of Helmstedt German male non-fiction writers