Aslakssen, Cort°

views updated

ASLAKSSEN, CORT°

ASLAKSSEN, CORT ° (Conradus Aslacus Bergensis ; 1564–1624), Scandinavian Hebraist. Born at Bergen, Aslakssen studied Hebrew and Aramaic in Germany with Johannes Piscator in Herborn and J. Buxtorf i in Basle. Eventually, he became professor of theology at Copenhagen. His Hebrew grammar (Grammaticae Hebraeae libri duo… (1606), including an analysis of Ps. 25), was the first printed in Scandinavia and was designed to replace that of Avenarius, considered too difficult for beginners; it was reprinted in 1608 (but not again in 1684 as erroneously reported by Steinschneider in Zentralblatt fuer Bibliothekwesen, 13 (1896), 353). Aslakssen was one of the founding fathers of Scandinavian Hebrew studies, most Danish and Norwegian 17th-century Hebraists being his direct or indirect pupils.

bibliography:

J. Moller, Bibliotheca septentrionis eruditi (Leipzig, 1699), 52; A. Thurah, Idea historiae litterariae Danorum (Hamburg, 1723), 336; J. Brochmand, Currus et equites Israelis (Copenhagen, 1629), sig. G4v; C.J. Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica, 5 (Rome, 1694), 339, 539; O. Garstein, Cort Aslakssøn: Studier … (Oslo, 1953).

[Rafael Edelman]