Uffembach, Zachary Conrade D'

a very learned German, was born at Frankfort Feb. 22, 1683, and was the son of a counsellor of that city, of an antient family. In 1694 he was sent for education to the college of Rudelstadt, where he applied with such ardour that his master was obliged to check him, and especially prevent his studying by night, to which he was much addicted. Besides the classics, which, young as he was, he always read with a pen in his hand, making such remarks or extracts as struck his fancy, he studied also the Hebrew language, and logic, and metaphysics, to which he soon added history, geography, chronology, &c. In 1698 he was obliged to return home to recover his health, which had probably been injured by intense application, and he for some time confined himself to lessons on history and geography from Arnold, then rector of the college of Frankfort. He was afterwards sent to the university of Strasburgh, where he studied the sciences, attended the anatomical lectures, &c. but his leading object was literary history and bibliography, in pursuit of which he passed much of his time in the public libraries. In 1700 he had the misfortune to lose both his parents, which obliged him to return to Frankfort. When his grief had in some degree subsided, he went to Halle, and continued his studies there about two years. In 1702 he took his degree of doctor of laws, and returned to Frankfort with a copious library, which he had collected in the course of his studies. He | then visited some of the most famous universities on the continent; but in 1704 settled at Frankfort, where the library he formed was then considered among the best in Europe. To make it still more complete appears to have been the object of his ambition, and he re-commenced his travels for that purpose in 1708 and 1709. In one of those years he was at Oxford, and had some inducement to settle there, but imagined that the climate would not agree with his health. When he returned to Frankfort from these tours in 1711, he brought an addition of four thousand books to his collection. In 1721 he was made a senator of his native city, but became now so diligent in his civic duties as to have little time to spare to his studies, which inclined him in 1729 to publish a catalogue of his library, with a view to dispose of a considerable part of it. He died Jan. 6, 1734, universally regretted. He had begun several learned works, which his employments as a magistrate, and afterwards his bad state of health, prevented his finishing; among these were, 1. “Glossarium Germanicum medii sevi.” 2. A history of his life, in Latin. 3. “Selecta historiae litterariae et librarian,” in several volumes. These he bequeathed to John George Schelhorn, along with his literary correspondence in eighteen large quarto volumes. In 1736 John Christ. Wolff printed an account of two collections made by Uffembach, which he had just purchased 3 the first consisting of an immense quantity of letters, mostly originals, written by the eminent men of the two or three preceding centuries the second comprized various curious Mss. on literary subjects. Schelhorn, in his “Amcenitates litterariaB,” has availed himself much of UfFembach’s collections; and in vol. IX. has an article entitled “Deprimitiis typographicis, quae Haerlemi in civica et Francoforti in bibliotheca Uffembachiana adservantur.” And he afterwards published a Life of Uffembach, prefixed to his “Cornmercii Epistolaris Uffembachiani Selecta, &c.” 5 vols. 1753 1756, 8vo. ¹