Jan Van Campen, Latinized Johannes Campensis (–1538) was a

Christian Hebraist A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew texts who approaches the works from a Christian perspective. The main area of study is the Hebrew text of the Bible (known as the Old Testament to Christians and as the Tanakh to Jews), but Christians ha ...

from the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. ...

who taught Hebrew in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

and

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Life

Campensis was born at

Kampen, Overijssel Kampen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, Netherlands. A member of the former Hanseatic League, it is ...

around 1490. He may have learned Hebrew from

Johann Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin (; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522), sometimes called Johannes, was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin's c ...

, and from 1520 to 1531 taught the language at the

Collegium Trilingue The Collegium Trilingue, often also called Collegium trium linguarum, or, after its creator Collegium Buslidianum (, ), is a university that was founded in 1517 under the patronage of the humanist, Hieronymus van Busleyden. The three languages tau ...

attached to the University of Leuven. In 1528 he published a work on Hebrew grammar with

Dirk Martens Dirk Martens () (1446 or 1447 – 28 May 1534) was a Printer (publishing), printer and editing, editor in the County of Flanders. He published over fifty books by Erasmus and the very first edition of Thomas More's ''Utopia (More book), Utopia''. ...

, based on the writings of

Elias Levita Elia Levita (13 February 146928 January 1549) (), also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Élie Lévita, Elia Levita Ashkenazi, Eliahu Levita, Eliyahu haBahur ("Elijah the Bachelor"), Elye Bokher, was a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian, schola ...

, which went through several editions. At Nuremberg in 1532 he published a paraphrase of 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 ...

based on the Hebrew text, and his paraphrase of

Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes ( ) is one of the Ketuvim ('Writings') of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ...

was published in Paris the same year. After 1531 he travelled through Germany and Poland to consult rabbis and other experts. For a while he taught at Kraków on the invitation of Prince-Bishop

Piotr Tomicki Piotr Tomicki (1464 – 19 October 1535) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Przemyśl and List of Bishops of Poznań, Poznań, Archbishop of Kraków, Vice-Chancellor of the Crown, and Royal Secretary. Celebrated as one of the most important represent ...

. He also spent two years in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

and visited

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. On his return journey to the Low Countries he contracted the plague, dying at

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

on 7 September 1538.

Publications

* ''Ex variis libellis Eliae grammaticorum omnium doctissimi, huc fere congestum est opéra Johannis Campensis, quidquid ad absolutam grammaticam hebràicam est necessarium'' (Leuven, 1528; Kraków, 1534; Paris, 1539, 1543).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campensis, Johannes 1490s births 1538 deaths People from Kampen, Overijssel Christian Hebraists Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven