Karl Aurivillius (2 August 1717

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

– 19 January 1786

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and orientalist.

Education

At age twelve he began studying

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

, and since then he also learned to read

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

, and

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

. He studied at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

and in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

and

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

. He became friends with the major contemporary Orientalists, as

Michaelis Michaelis or Michelis is a surname. Notable people and characters with the surname include: * Adolf Michaelis, German classical scholar * Anthony R. Michaelis, German science writer * Edward Michelis, German theologian * Georg Michaelis, German ...

, Etienne Fourmont and

Albert Schultens Albert Schultens (; 168626 January 1750) was a Dutch philologist. Biography He was born at Groningen, where he studied for the church. He went on to the University of Leiden, applying himself specially to Hebrew and the cognate tongues. His thes ...

Career

Aurivillius was a master of the Syriac,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

languages. In 1747 he became associate professor of Greek and Oriental Languages at Uppsala. His thesis was on the USU dialect Arabica, and earned his doctorate in 1752 with a dissertation on Ibn al-Wardi cosmography. He was part of King Gustav III's Bible Commission and translated almost the entire

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

into Swedish. He often worked as a translator for the government's diplomatic relations with the Orient and at the Office of Trade. For a time he worked to catalog Queen Lovisa Ulrika's Oriental manuscript collection. In 1754 he was appointed professor of poetry at Uppsala, and in 1772 Professor of Oriental Languages. With Linnaeus's resignation, he became in 1767 the permanent secretary of the Society of Sciences in Uppsala. From 1757-1786, Aurivillius was also inspector at Västgöta.

Family

Aurivillius was the son of Charles XII's confessor, a superintendent named Magnus Petri Aurivillius (1673-1740) and Margareta Kristina von Numers (1694-1781). He descended through his father from the Bure dynasty. Aurivillius married Eva Ulrika Ekerman (1733-1804) and had two children, Per Fabian Aurivillius (1756-1829) and Eva Maria Aurivillius (1758-1844). Their son Per Fabian Aurivillius became a famous librarian at Carolina Rediviva.

References

Sources

* * 1717 births 1786 deaths Academic staff of Uppsala University Swedish orientalists Age of Liberty people {{Sweden-academic-bio-stub