Theodore Bibliander

Theodore (or Theodorus) Bibliander (Theodor Buchmann; 1509 – 26 September 1564) was a Swiss orientalist, publisher, Protestant reformer and linguist.

Biography
Born Theodor Buchmann (Bibliander is a Greek translation of this surname) in Bischofszell in 1509, he studied Latin under Oswald Myconius, and Greek and Hebrew under Jakob Ceporin, and attended lectures in Basel between 1525 and 1527 given by Johannes Oecolampadius and Konrad Pelikan. He also became familiar with the Arabic language and other languages from the East; he became a professor of theology. He published a Hebrew grammar in 1535, and commentaries on the Bible.

Johannes Oporinus printed Bibliander's edition of the Qur'an in Latin (Basel, 1543), which was based on the medieval translation of Robert of Ketton. The edition included the entire Toledan Collection, including Doctrina Machumet, a translation of the Arabic theological tract known as the Book of One Thousand Questions. Considered the father of biblical exegesis in Switzerland, Bibliander became involved in a doctrinal controversy with Pietro Martire Vermigli (Peter Martyr) over predestination; he was removed from his theological professorship at the Carolinum academy in 1560. He died of the plague in Zürich on 26 September 1564, at the age of 54–55.

Works

 * Institutionum grammaticarum de lingua Hebraea liber unus, Zürich, 1535
 * De optimo genere grammaticorum Hebraicorum, Hieronymus Curio, Zürich, 1542
 * Machumetis Saracenorum principis eiusque successorum vitae ac doctrina ipseque Alcoran, Johannes Oporin, Basel, 1543, 1550. (Qur'an: on-line text with critical apparatus in French, on-line text with critical apparatus in German)
 * Relatio fidelis, Johannes Oporin, Basel, 1545
 * De ratione communi omnium linguarum et litterarum commentarius, Christoph Froschauer, Zürich, 1548
 * De ratione temporum, Johannes Oporin, Basel, 1551
 * Temporum a condito mundo usque ad ultimam ipsius aetatem supputatio, Johannses Oporin, Basel, 1558