Hiob Ludolf (M / Germany, 1624-1704), scholar
Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704) was a German scholar and founder of Ethiopian studies in Germany. Ludolf studied medicine and law at the University of Erfurt. Privately he learned a great number of languages, among them Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and Armenian; his main interest, however, was Ethiopic.
After having continued his studies at the University of Leiden, in 1648 he became private tutor in the service of the Baron of Rosenhahn, who was at this time Swedish ambassador in Paris. In 1651 Ludolf moved back to Erfurt, were he took a doctorate in law and subsequently was appointed court counselor in 1658. In 1661 he published the first edition of his Ge'ez dictionary and grammar. Since 1676 he lived in Frankfurt, where he published the second edition of his dictionary in 1699 and the second edition of his grammar in 1702, both of which remained standard reference works until August Dillmann in the 19th century.
Ludolf learned from Pierre Gassendi's biograghy of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, that a copy of the Ethiopic book of Enoch was believed to be in France. He traveled to Aix-en-Provence only to discover that Pereisc's manuscript was now in Paris at the library of Cardinal Jules Mazarin. He asked a friend to transcribe portions of the manuscript and immediately realized that the Ethiopic manuscript Peiresc purchased from Egypt merely contained a number of citations of and allusions to the Enoch tradition. Ludolf was so frustrated that he concluded that a book of Enoch never existed.
Works
Biography
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References
E. Haberland, „Ludolf 1) Hiob“, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie vol. 15, pp. 303-304.
S. Uhlig, „Ludolf, Hiob“, in: Encyclopaedia Aethiopica vol. 3, pp. 601-603.
J. Tubach, „Ludolf, Hiob“, in: Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon vol. 5, coll. 317-325.