Oriental Literature. 63 



Meissner, of Germany, by selecting and publish- 

 ing, in a cheap and convenient form, the most im- 

 portant and useful of the various readings exhibited 

 by Kennicot and De Rossi, produced a work 

 which does honour to themselves, and deserves to 

 be mentioned as one of the ornaments of the age. 

 Many other publications were made, during the 

 eighteenth century, which facilitated and pro- 

 moted the study of the Hebrew language. Among 

 these the Critica Sacra of Edward Leigh, an 

 English divine, and the Clavis Lingua Sanctce. of 

 Christian Stock, a learned German, are worthy 

 of high praise. As the seventeenth century was 

 adorned by the Buxtorfs, of Switzerland, and 

 the study of the oriental languages greatly pro- 

 moted by their example and their labours, so the 

 eighteenth was rendered remarkable by the won- 

 derful oriental learning, and the numerous publi- 

 cations on this branch of literature, by the Mi- 

 chaelises, of Germany. There were three in suc- 

 cession of this name, who all hold high and honour- 

 able places in the list of modern scholars, viz. 

 John Henry, Christian Benedict, and John 

 David. The last, who was the son of John 

 Henry, and who was nearly half a century en- 

 gaged in promoting oriental literature, exceeded 

 both his father and uncle in this species of erudi- 

 tion, and, indeed, might probably with truth be 

 pronounced the greatest orientalist that the western 

 world ever beheld. His Oriental and Exegetical 



scure and difficult of construction. The Keri is the Masoretical emenda- 

 tion, or different reading; and of these there are in the Bible about one 

 thousand. It is remarkable that, of this number, nine hundred and eighty-six 

 have been found in the texts of different manuscripts, by the industry of 

 Kennicot and Be Rossi. A result so honourable to the Masoritss could 

 scarcely have been expected. 



o Biblia Hebraita, olim aCHRlSTIANO ReiNECCIO edit a, nunc denuo cum 

 variis lectionilus> ex ingenti codicum copia, a B. Kennicotto et JoHAN. 

 Bern. De Ros3i, &c. ediderunt J. C. Doederlein, et J. H. Meissner, 

 8vo. Leips. 1793. 



VOL. II, K 



