BUXTORF. - A family of Protestant Hebraists of
Basel, who succeeded one another in the chair of biblical
languages in that city.
JOHANN (I, senior [1564-1629]) was the most famous.
A most learned Hebraist, initiated into Hebrew and
Talmudic literature by learned Jews, he obtained the chair in
1590. He maintained, along with various other Protestants of his time,
that the vowel points in the Hebrew text and the square script
were primitive.
Works: Synagoga iudaica (Basel 1603 in German;
Hanau 1604 in Latin), an exposition of the religion, customs
and ceremonies of the Jews; Praeceptiones grammaticae hebraicae (ibid. 1605), later becoming the Epitome gramm. hebr.,
which went through 16 editions; Epitome radicum hebr. et chald. (ibid. 1607),
later becoming the Lexikon hebraicum et chaldaicum; De
abbreviaturis hebraicis (ibid. 1613); Biblia hebraica (ibid. 1618-
1619); Tiberias, seu commentarius masorethicus (ibid. 1620);
Lexicon chaldaicum talmudicum, published by his son (ibid.
1639); Concordantiae Bibliorum hebraicae (ibid. 1632).
JOHANN (II, iunior [1569-1664]), son of the foregoing, defended his father's theses, polemicizing with the Protestant Louis (II) Cappel, who maintained, on the contrary,
that the vowel points were later than the Talmud and
that the square script had been preceded by the
Samaritan, primitive one.
Works: Lexicon chald. et syr. (Basel 1622); De litterarum hebr. genuina antiquitate (ibid. 1643); De linguae
hebr. origine et antiquitate (ibid. 1644); various Dissertaciones philol.-theol. (ibid. 1645
ff.); Tractatus de
punctorum, vocalium
et accentuum in libris
V. T. hebr. origine
(ibid. 1648); Anticritica, seu Vindiciae
veritatis hebr. adv.
Lud. Cappelli criti-cam (ibid. 1653). He
translated from Hebrew into
Latin the Mōreh Nē-
bhūkhīm (Doctor per-plexorum, ibid. 1629)
of Moses Maimonides, and the Kūzārī (Liber
Cosri, ibid. 1660) of
Judah Halevi.
JOHN JAMES (1645-1704), son of the preceding, prepared new editions of his grandfather's two works Tiberias (Basel 1665) and Synagoga iudaica (ibid. 1680). After his death the rich collection of Hebrew works of the B. family passed to the library of the University of Basel.
JOHN III (1661-1732), whose uncle was the preceding, wrote: Catalecta philol.-theol. cum mantissa epistolar. viror. claror. ad Iohannem Buxtorfium patrem et filium scriptarum (Basel 1707); Specimen phraseologiae V. T. hebr. (Frankfurt am Main 1717).