REINHOLD, ERASMUS. 



RELAND, ADRIAN. 



Canouum secundi libri Directionum qui in Regiomoutani Opere 

 deaiderantur,' 4 to, Tiibingen, 1554. In this work the table of tangents 

 was first extended to each minute of the quadrant from to 89, and 

 to every 10" from 89 to 90. The last figure of the tangents here 

 given can nowhere be depended on, arid above 70 the error is much 

 greater. Like Miiller, he showed himself very little acquainted with 

 the use to which such a table is applicable, notwithstanding the epithet 

 "fsecuudus" which they applied to it. Reinhold supposed, with 

 Copernicus, that the obliquity of the ecliptic varied from 23 28' to 

 23" 52'. 5. ' Tabula) Asceneionum Obliquarum a 60 Gradu Eleva- 

 tionis Poli usque ad Finem Quadrantis, per Erasmum Reinholdum 

 supputatse,' appended to the edition of Miiller's 'Tables of Directions,' 

 printed in 1584. 0'. There is also an anonymous work, printed in 

 1568, 8vo, entitled ' Hypotypnses Orbium Cselestium quas vulgo vocant 

 Theoricas Planetarum Congruentes cum Tabulis Astronomicis,' which 

 is supposed to be the composition of Reinhold. See ' Astron. Moderne,' 

 i., pp. 142 and 146. (Astronomic du Moyen Age, pp. 272-274 ; Astron. 

 Modeme, L, p. 164; Zedler, Grosses Universal Lexicon, fol., Leip., 1742, 

 band 31, p. 206; Vossius, De Sdentiis Mathematicis, c. 36, p. 14; 

 Dappelmayer, De Mathem., &c.) 



REINHOLD, ERASMUS, son of the preceding. He possessed some 

 knowledge of astronomy, and submitted to Tycho a copy of the 

 Prutenic Tables calculated to each 10"; but the want of fortune obliged 

 him to adopt the medical profession. 



REISKE, JOHANN JACOB, a physician, and celebrated scholar, 

 whose fame rests chiefly on his knowledge of the Arabic, was born on 

 the 25th of December 1716, at Zorbig, a small town near Leipzig. 

 His grandfather was an innkeeper, and his father a tanner. At the 

 age of twelve he was sent to the orphan-school at Halle, rnd was 

 entered at the University of Leipzig in 1733, where, being destined by 

 his relations to the theological profession, he spent five years chiefly 

 in the study of the rabbinical writings and Arabic. He was soon 

 induced to renounce the first of these pursuits, but he became ex- 

 tremely devoted to the second ; and his passion for Arabic books was 

 so strong that he almost deprived himself of the common necessaries 

 of life in order to purchase them. The learned Wolf of Hamburg 

 having, in 1736, sent him the 'Narrations' of Hariri, he copied it 

 with great eagerness, and in the following year printed at Leipzig the 

 twenty-sixth ' Consessus ' with Arabic scholia and a Latin version. 

 The" success of this essay caused him to take the resolution, contrary 

 to the advice of his friends, of going to Holland for improvement in 

 the Arabic language. He ransacked all tbe Oriental treasures of the 

 library at Leyden, whilst for his subsistence he was obliged to become 

 a corrector of the press. He passed his time in a state of indigence 

 and discountenance that brought upon him hypochondriac affections, 

 the effects of which never left him. During his stay at Leyden, he 

 made use of the advantages the place afforded for the study of medicine, 

 and on his return to Leipzig he was presented with a gratuitous degree 

 of Doctor of Physic ; but his manners and habits were altogether 

 unsuited for the obtaining of professional practice. Poverty was his 

 perpetual companion, and his scanty resources were derived from 

 correcting the press, translating, and performing other tasks for book- 

 sellers. His condition soured his temper, and he made many enemies 

 by the severity of his censures. In the meantime, many valuable 

 works in Oriental and Greek literature were occasionally proceeding 

 from his pen, which made him well known to the learned world, and 

 he was at length nominated rector of the college of St. Nicholas in 

 Leipzig. Thus placed in happier circumstances as to fortune, he 

 pursued his literary labours more according to his inclination, and 

 fulfilled the duties of his office with exemplary diligence. At the age of 

 forty-eight he married Ernestine Christine Miiller, a young woman of 

 twenty-nine, noticed below, who was afterwards of great use to him in 

 his editorial employments. He died on the 14th of August 1774. 



The following is a list of some of the most valuable of his works, 

 beginning with those on Oriental subjects : 1, ' Miscellanese aliquot 

 Observationes Medicse ex Arabum Monimentis,' 4to, Lugd. Bat., 1746, 

 a little work of much importance to all who take an interest in the 

 Arabic physicians, which was republished after Reiske's death by 

 Christ. God. Griiner, 8vo, Hake, 1776. 2, 'Abilfedte Opus Geogra- 

 phicum.' This translation of the Geography of Abdulfeda is to be 

 found in Biisching's ' Magazin fur die neue Historic und Geographic,' 

 vols. iv. and v., Lips. 1770, 8vo. Unfortunately Reiske did not possess 

 sufficient mathematical knowledge to understand the systematic part 

 of such a work. 3, ' Proben der Arabischen Dichtkunst in verliebten 

 und traurigen Gedichten, aus dem Motanabbi, Arabisch und Deutsch, 

 nebst Anmerkungen,' Leipzig, 1765, 4to. This contains only a part of 

 the poems of Motauabbi, the whole of which he had copied out during 

 his residence at Leyden, and wished to publish. A German translation 

 of the whole of his poems is among his unpublished manuscripts. 4, 

 ' AbilfedsD Annales Moslemici,' Leipzig, 1754, 4to. This volume 

 contains the translation of the Annals of Abulfeda [ABULFEDA], from 

 the birth of Mohammed to A.H. 406 (A.D. 1015-16) : it is scarcely two- 

 fifths of that part of Abulfeda's work which treats of the history of 

 the Mohammedans. Reiske did not translate the first part of this 

 work, which has for its object the history of the time anterior to 

 Mohammed. His other works consist of editions of various classical 

 authors, as ' Constantinua Porphyrogennetus,' Gr. et Lat., fol., Lips., 

 1751, 1754 ; ' Ciceronia Tusculanse Qusestiones/ 12mo, Lips., 1759 ; 



Theocritus,' Gr. et Lat., 4 to, 2 vola., Lips., 1766; 'Oratores Gra;ci,' 

 Gr. et. Lat., 8vo, 12 vole., Lips., 1774-75; 'Plutarchi Opera Omnia,' 

 Gr. et Lat., 8vo, Lips., 12 vols., 1774-82, of which only the first appeared 

 during his life ; ' Maximus Tyrius," Gr. et Lat., 8vo, 2 vols., Lips., 

 1774; ' Dionysius HalicarnasBensis,' Gr. et. Lat., 8vo, Lips., 6 vols., 

 1774-77, of which the last four were published after his death. Some 

 of these latter works, as well as several translations, were hastily 

 executed in order to gain a livelihood, and most of them have been 

 superseded by more recent and accurate editions. A complete list 

 both of his published works and his manuscripts is given by Reiske's 

 wife, in her continuation of his memoirs, which were published at 

 Leipzig, 8vo, 1783, under the title, ' J. J. Reiskens von ihm selbst 

 aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibnng,' pp. 816. His knowledge of Greek 

 was considerable, and he is universally allowed to have been one of 

 the best Arabic scholars that ever lived; in both these languages 

 however he is much too bold and hasty a critic to be implicitly 

 trusted, and his alterations and conjectures are frequently unnecessary 

 and absurd. 



REISKE, ERNESTINE CHRISTINE, whose maiden name was 

 Miiller, the wife of the preceding, and a woman of great literary 

 accomplishments, was born on the 2nd of April 1735, at Kumberg, a 

 small town near Wittemberg in Prussian Saxony. In 1755 she became 

 acquainted with Reiske at Leipzig, where she was paying a visit, and 

 notwithstanding that he was twenty years her senior, they conceived 

 a mutual love and esteem for each other ; owing however to the war 

 which raged all over Saxony, they were not married till 1764. This 

 union, which contributed so much to Reiske's happiness during the 

 rest of his life, was also of service to the cause of literature, and 

 Christine Reiske deservedly occupies a distinguished place in the list 

 of learned women. In order to help her husband by dividing with 

 him his literary labours, she acquired under his instructions such a 

 knowledge of Latin and Greek that she was soon able to understand 

 the writers in those languages. From this time she was of the greatest 

 assistance to him : she copied and collated manuscripts for him, 

 arranged the various readings that he had collected, and read and 

 corrected the proof sheets of his works. Her attachment for him and 

 her respect for his memory are strongly shown in the supplement to 

 his 'Autobiography,' which she completed, from the 1st of January 

 1770, to the time of his death in 1774. The gratitude of Reiske, and 

 the ardour of his affection for one who lived only for him, are not less 

 strongly expressed both in the 'Autobiography' just mentioned and 

 in the prefaces to some of his works. On the occasion of his publishing 

 his ' Demosthenes,' we have the following interesting note by his wife 

 in his ' Memoirs ': " When the, work went to press, only twenty thalers 

 of the subscription money had come in. The good man was quite 

 struck down with this, and seemed to have thrown away all hope. 

 His grief went to my soul, and I comforted him as well as I could, and 

 persuaded him to sell my jewels, which he at length came into, after 

 I had convinced him that a few shining stones were not necessary to 

 my happiness." After her husband's death she published several 

 works that he had left unfinished, namely, the last three volumes of 

 the ' Oratores Qrseci,' 8vo, Lips., 1775 ; ' Libanii Sophistse Orationes 

 et Declamationes/ Altem., 4 vols. 8vo, 1783-87, Grsece; ' Dionis 

 Chrysostomi Orationes,' Greece, 2 vols. 8vo, Lips., 1784. She also 

 published two works herself, one at Mitau, 2 vols. 8vo, 1778-79, with 

 the title of ' Hellas,' and another entitled ' Zur Moral : aus dem 

 Griechischen ubersetzt von E. C. Reiske,' 8vo, pp. 364, 1782, Dessau 

 and Leipzig, containing several moral works, translated by her from 

 the Greek into German. Concerning this last work see the ' Bibliotheca 

 Critica,' by Wyttenbach (part viii. page 142), Amstel., 1783. She also 

 gave to M. Boden, for his edition of the Greek romance of ' Achilles 

 Tatius' (8vo, Leipzig, 1776), the various readings of a manuscript col- 

 lated by herself. After her husband's death she lived successively at 

 Leipzig, Dresden, and Brunswick, and died at her native town, Kum- 

 berg, of apoplexy, on the 27th of July 1798. 



RELAND, ADRIAN, was born at Ryp, a village in North Holland, 

 on the 17th of July 1676. His father was a minister of that village, 

 but afterwards removed to Amsterdam, where Reland was educated, 

 He made such progress in learning that at eleven years of age he had 

 passed through the usual classical course. The next three years he 

 spent in making himself acquainted with the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, 

 and Arabic languages, under the tuition of Surenhusius. At fourteen 

 he was sent to Utrecht, where he studied under Grsevius and Leusden, 

 and three years after was admitted to the degree of Doctor in Philo- 

 sophy, on which occasion he sustained a thesis, 'De Libertate Philoso- 

 phaudi.' At seventeen he entered upon a course of divinity, under 

 the direction of Herman Witsius and others ; but he did not abandon 

 the Oriental languages, which were always his favourite studies. After 

 a residence of six years at Utrecht he removed to Leyden, and soon 

 after the Earl of Portland chose him as preceptor to his son. In 1699 

 he was elected professor of philosophy at Harderwick, but did not 

 continue long in that situation ; for the University of Utrecht, on the 

 recommendation of King William, offered him the professorship of 

 Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history, which he readily accepted, 

 and filled with high reputation during the remainder of his life. He 

 died of the small-pox at Utrecht, on the 5th of February 1718, in the 

 forty-second year of his age. He wrote and published a great number 

 of works on sacred and Oriental learning, the chief of which are the 



