Bos, Lambert

, a learned philologist, was born at Worcum in Friesland, Nov. 23, 1670. His father who was rector or principal regent of the schools, and accustomed to mark the early appearance of talents, soon discovered his son’s aptitude for learning, and taught him Greek and Latin. His mother, a woman of abilities, and aunt to Vitringa, when she saw the latter, then a very | young man, advanced to the professorship of Oriental languages, exclaimed with maternal fondness that she hoped to see her son promoted to a similar rank. In this, however, she was not gratified, as she died before he had finished his studies. When he had gone through the ordinary course of the classes in his father’s school, he continued adding to his knowledge by an attentive perusal of the Greek and Latin authors, and had many opportunities for this while he lived with a man of rank, as private tutor to his children. Cicero, above all, was his favourite Latin, author, whom he read again and again. In 1694 he went to the university of Franeker, where his relation, Vitringa, encouraged him to pursue the Greek and Latin studies, to which he seemed so much attached. In October 1696 he was permitted to teach Greek in the university, and in February of the following year, the curators honoured him with the title of prelector in that language. In 1704, when the Greek professorship became vacant by the death of Blancard, Mr. Bos was appointed his successor, and on taking the chair, read a dissertation on the propagation of Greek learning by their colonies, “de eruditione Graecorum per Colonias eorum propagata.” About the end of 1716 he was attacked with a malignant fever, ending in a consumption, a disorder he inherited from his mother, which terminated his life Jan. 6, 1717. Bos was a man of extensive classical learning, a solid judgment, and strong memory. In his personal character he was candid, amiable, and pious; in his studies so indefatigable that he cegretted every moment that was not employed in them. About five years before his death he married the widow of a clergyman, by whom he left two sons.

He published, 1. “Exercitaciones Philologicæ, in quibus Novi Fœderis nonnulla loca è profants maximè auctoribus Græcis iiiustrantur,” Franeker, 1700, 8vo; and in 1713 much enlarged, particularly with an ingenious etymological dissertation, on which, as well as on the work itself, Le Clerc bestows high praise in his “Bibliotheque Choisie,” vol. XV. and his “Bibl. Anc. et Moderne,” vol. 11. 2. “Mysterii Ellipsios Grcecas expositi Specimen,” ibid. 1702, 12 mo. There have been many editions of this useful work to Greek students. 3. “Observatiunes Misceilanex ad loca quaedam cum Novi Fcederis, turn externorum Scriptorum Græcorum,” ibid. 1707, 8vo. 4. An edition of the “Septuagint,” 1709, 2 vols. 4to, with Prolegomena, &c. | which Breitinger, who published another edition in 1730— 1732, has criticised with considerable seventy in the “Journal Litteraire,” vol. XVIII. which the reader may compare with what is said of Breitinger’s edition in vol. XL of the “Bibliotheque Raisonnee.” 5. “Antiquitatum Gritearum, praecipne Atticarurh, brevis Descriptio,” Franeker, 1713, 12mo. Of this there have been several editions, as it became a school book. That of Leisner, at Paris, 1769, was in 1772 translated into English by our countryman, the late rev. Percival Stock’dale, and published in octavo, in hopes that it might supply young scholars with a manual more useful than Potter’s Antiquities, but it did not answer the translator’s expectations in this respect. 6. “Animadversiones ad Scriptores quosdam Graccos. Accedit specimen animadversionum Latinarum,” Franeker, 1715, 8vo. The same year he published a new edition of Weller’s Greek Grammar, adding two chapters on accentuation and syntax, shorter and more methodical than those of Weller. F. H. Schcefer published a variorum edition of his “Ellipses,” in 1809, Leipsic. Saxius only, of all his biographers, notices a work by Bos which appears to have been his first, “Thomre Magistri Dictionum Atticarurh Ecloga,” Franeker, 1698, 8vo. ¹