Oswald, Erasmus

, a learned professor of the mathematics and of the Hebrew language, was born in the county of Merckenstein, in Austria, in 1511. He studied successively at the universities of Ingoldstadt, Leipsic, and Basil, from which last he went to Memmingen, in Swabia, on an invitation from the magistrates to become mathematical professor in that city; and afterwards to Tubingen, and was elected professor of Hebrew, with which he joined | a course of lectures on the mathematics. In 1552 he accepted of the united professorships of mathematics and Hebrew at Friburg, which he held for more than twentyseven years. He died in 1579, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was author of “Commentaria in Theorias Planetarum;” “De primo mobili;” “Commentaria in Sphaeram Joannis de Sacrobosco;” “In Almagestum Ptolomaei Annotationes;” “Gentium Kalendarium;” “Oratio funebris de Obitu Sebastiani Munsterii,” written in the Hebrew language. He likewise translated the New Testament into Hebrew, and wrote paraphrases on several books of the Bible. ¹