Autograph Letter Signed, written in Latin to Konrad Vorstius.

<<Excepionaly rare for letters by Johannes Buxtorf to appear at auction.>> This significant letter joins two distinguished reformed scholars, a theologian, Konrad von den Vorst (1569-1622), and a Hebraist, Johannes Buxtorf. Von den Vorst was a German-Dutch Remonstrant, heterodox theologian, who became the successor of Jacob Arminius in the chair of theology at Leiden. Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) was a renowned Hebraist, member of a family of Orientalists, who studied with Bullinger and Beza. He taught Hebrew in Basle for almost forty years. The letter discusses how Buxtorf’s Epitome Radicum Hebraicarum (1607) conflicts with Sanctes Pagninus’s Thesaurus Linguae Sanctae (1529). Buxtorf reveals the methodology he employed to solve grammatical, etymological and lexical problems present in Pagninus’s work, as well as other similar contemporary works. Buxtorf identifies the distorted use of some Hebrew words with theological meaning and conflicting doctrinal interests - rather typical at this stage of the Reformation era. Other celebrated Hebraists and reformed theologians mentioned in this letter are Johann Goddë, Frans van Ravelingen, Joseph Scaliger, Johann van den Driesche, Johann Jakob Gryner and Amandus Polanus von Polansdorf. The letter also reports on the patronage of the four ruling Counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt, the sons of Count Arnold II. Buxtorf’s Epitome Radicum Hebraicarum is considered to be the foundation for all much early Hebraic research.