Levinus Warner
Levinus Warner or Levinus Warnerus (* 1618 or 1619 in Lippe; † June 22, 1665 in Istanbul ) was a German orientalist , manuscript collector and the diplomat of the Dutch Republic in the Ottoman Empire .
Life
Levinus Warner was born in Lippe in 1618 or 1619. After graduating from the old grammar school in Bremen , he was admitted to the Athenaeum in Bremen in 1636 . At the Athenaeum he learned oriental languages from the headmaster Ludwig Crocius . In May 1638 he enrolled as a student at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands ( Dutch Universiteit Leiden ) philosophy . Under Jacobus Golius he also continued to study oriental languages, with Constantijn L'Empereur (1591–1648) he received Biblical Hebrew . His livelihood earned Warner as a teacher for the nephew of Radslav Kinský. In 1642 he went to Amsterdam with some students , where he met the Hebrew and printer Menasse ben Israel . From 1642 to 1644 he published four small treatises on oriental subjects. About the land he left in October 1644 after Danzig and then to Lviv ( Ukrainian Lviv ). Finally, Warner arrived in Constantinople in the fall of 1645 . In the first few years he worked as secretary for Nicolaas Ghisbrechti (or Nicolaas Ghysbrechtsz ), a jeweler from the south of the Netherlands, until Ghisbrechti became resident and continued to work for him. After Ghisbrechti's death in late 1654, Warner received a visit from the States General in January 1655 . Since the Dutch Republic did not have a strong diplomatic policy in the Ottoman Empire, they asked Warner if he would like this job. Warner already had some experience in diplomatic politics, as he, with Dutch support in Venice, rejected piracy in the Cretan War . As a diplomat of the Dutch Republic, his consular task was to represent the economic interests of the Republic in the Ottoman Empire. Especially in the Smyrna trading area (today's Izmir) it was his job to get the ships handled. He worked as a diplomat until his death in 1665. In his lifetime he collected over 900 Ottoman and Oriental manuscripts, most of which are now kept in the Leiden University Library.
Collection of manuscripts and books
During the twenty years he spent in Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire, he collected over 900 manuscripts in the oriental language. Of these, around 600 are in Arabic , around 100 in Greek , 73 are in Hebrew , and two manuscripts are in Armenian and other languages. His collection also included 218 printed Hebrew books. Warner bought his books in a bookstore in Constantinople. Muhammad al-'Urdi al-Halabi (1602–1660) offered Warner books because of his faltering and ceasing career as a doctor . There is evidence to show that Warner acquired some of his manuscripts at auctions and that these came from high-ranking scholars of Ottoman bureaucrats . Some collections can be turned back to the private libraries of the sultans . Most manuscripts do not relate to religious matters, but to scientific matters, such as language , literature , history , philosophy, or other matters. He obtained most of the Hebrew manuscripts from the Karaites ( karaim. Къарайм ), a Jewish religious community . Special works from his collection include:
- طوق الحمام (German The Ring of the Dove ), a handwritten manuscript by Tawq al-Hamama and one of the oldest surviving illustrated Arabic manuscripts with a scientific theme
- كتاب الحشائ (German weed book ), based on a translation of Materia medica by Dioscurides Pedanius
- كتاب الحديث (German book of conversation ), the oldest dated manuscript on paper in the Arab world
Web links
literature
- M.Th. Houtsma: Uit de Oostersche correspondentie van Th. Erpenius, Jac. Golius en Lev. Warner. Eene bijdrage tot de divorceis van de beoefening the Oostersche letteren in Nederland. Amsterdam, 1887.
- PS van Koningsveld: 'Warner's manuscripts and books in the main printed catalogs', in: Levinus Warner and his legacy . Leiden, 1970, 33-44.
- Levinus Warner and his legacy. Three centuries Legatum Warnerianum in the Leiden University Library. Catalog of the commemorative exhibition held in the Bibliotheca Thysiana from April 27th to May 15th 1970 . Leiden, 1970.
- J. Schmidt, A. Vrolijk (eds.): The Ottoman Legacy of Levinus Warner . Leiden, 2012. (Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online, 2). Online via http://www.brill.com/publications/online-resources/middle-eastern-manuscripts-online-2-ottoman-legacy-levinus-warner (restricted access).
- Spanheim, F. (ed.), Catalogus Bibliothecae Publicae Lugduno-Batavae noviter recognitus. Accessit incomparabilis thesaurus librorum Orientalium , Leiden, 1674.
- A. Vrolijk, J. Schmidt, K. Scheper: Turcksche boucken. De oosterse verzameling van Levinus Warner, Nederlands diplomaat in zeventiende-eeuws Istanbul / The Oriental collection of Levinus Warner, Dutch diplomat in seventeenth-century Istanbul . Eindhoven, 2012.
- JJ Witkam: Inventory of the Oriental manuscripts of the University of Leiden . Leiden, 2007-…, online via http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/inventories/leiden/index.html .
Individual evidence
- ↑ date of birth. Accessed October 9, 2016
- ↑ Warner's manuscripts. Retrieved October 10, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Warner, Levinus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Warnerus, Levinus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German orientalist, manuscript collector and diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1618 or 1619 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | lip |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 22, 1665 |
| Place of death | Istanbul |