Maturinus Veyssière La Croze (4 December 1661,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

– 21 May 1739) was in his early years a learned French

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

historian and orientalist. Later, as a Protestant convert, he became royal librarian and professor of the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

Armenologist Armenian studies or Armenology (, ) is a field of humanities covering Armenian history, language and culture. The emergence of modern Armenian studies is associated with the foundation of the Catholic Mechitarist order in the early 18th century. ...

. He received his first education from his father, who owned a private library. In 1677 his family got into financial difficulties and he became a novice in Saint-Florent de Saumur. He studied theology in Le Mans and by 1682 he was a Benedictine at the

Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The co ...

in Paris. In 1696 he came into trouble with his prior and fled to

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, where he received support from Swiss Reformed professors Peter Werenfels and J. Buxtorf and converted to the

Reformed Church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

. A year later, he became a Prussian royal librarian in Berlin. He also was a teacher for several members of the royal family. Since 1725 he was also professor of philosophy at the French Collegium in Berlin. He left many unpublished works and a considerable private library. Besides French, he spoke Latin, German, Armenian, and some Semitic and Slavic languages. Among his unpublished works were four dictionaries in Coptic, Armenian, Slavic and Syriac. His works include ''Vindiciae veterum scriptorum contra J. Hardunium (1708), the ''Histoire du christianisme des Indes'' (1724), ''Histoire du Christianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Arménie'' (1739), and a Coptic-Latin dictionary.A list of Coptic manuscript materials in the Papyrological Institute Leiden and in the Library of the University of Leiden

Bibliography

Vindiciae veterum scriptorum, contra J. Harduinum S. J. P.
Rotterdam, 1708 (Latin)

dated 1721, kept in Leiden (Or. 431 B).
''Lexicon Ægyptiaco-Latinum''
ex veteribus illus linguae monumentis summo studio collectum et elaboratum. Quod in compendium redegit, ita ut nullae voces Aegyptiacae, nullae que earum significationes omitterentur, Christianus Scholtz, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1775. The dictionary manuscript of La Croze was further enhanced and improved by Christian Scholtz (or Scholz) and edited in print by Karl Gottfried Woide (Coptic and Latin).
Histoire du christianisme aux Indes
1724
Histoire du christianisme d’Ethiopie et d’Arménie
1739 * Translated

Nerses IV the Gracious Nerses IV the Gracious (; also Nerses Shnorhali, Nerses of Kla or Saint Nerses the Graceful; 1102 – 13 August 1173) was Catholicos of Armenia from 1166 to 1173. During his time as a bishop and, later, as Catholicos of All Armenians, Catholic ...

's poem "Jesus the Son" from Armenian
A historical grammar, translated into English and enlarged by Caleb Bingham

Notes

* Շրումպֆ Ա., Ուսումնասիրութիւնք հայ լեզուի եւ մատենագրութեան յարևմուտս (ԺԴ.-ԺԹ. դար), թարգմանեց եւ լրացուց Գ. Զարբհանալեան, Venice, 1895 * Հայկական համառոտ հանրագիտարան, vol. 2, Yerevan, 1995, p. 399

External links

* (German)
Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der frühen Neuzeit, Band 1:Bio-bibliographisches Repertorium pp. 377-378
(German).
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Short biography (German)

Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal dictionary of arts ..., vol 5, pp. 404

Le grand dictionnaire historique ou Le melange curieux de l'Histoire sacrée et profane
..by Louis Moreri, Desaint et Saillant, Paris 1759, vol. 4, p. 297 (French). *

Thomas Hartwell Horne Thomas Hartwell Horne (20 October 1780 – 27 January 1862) was an English theologian and librarian. Life He was born in London and educated at Christ's Hospital until he was 15 when his father died and he had to work. He then became a clerk ...

An Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures
vol 2, p. 96. * Charles Étienne Jordanbr>Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Mr. La Croze
Biography (French)] {{DEFAULTSORT:Veyssiere La Croze, Maturin 1661 births 1739 deaths French Benedictines French orientalists French Protestants German librarians Armenian studies scholars