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82 Helander

Chapter 6 Gustaf Peringer’s Speech in Praise of the Oriental Languages (1674) and his Evaluation of the Turkish Tongue

Hans Helander

1 Introduction the help of other texts representing the same kind of Hebrew, since there are no such texts. There are In June 1674, Gustaf Peringer, future Professor of a number of later Hebrew texts, written in the Rab- Oriental languages, gave a speech at Uppsala Uni- binic tradition, but they represent a much later versity in which he extolled the study of various stage of development of the language, and are of Oriental languages. The speech was held in Latin, little use to the interpretation of Biblical Hebrew. as was usual on all official academic occasions at Given this situation, the obvious method seemed this time in Sweden. to be comparative study, in this case to resort to The leading ideas of this oration are well worth languages in the region that appeared to be related a closer analysis. We should, however, first give a to Hebrew. general picture of the background and general Consequently, scholars turned to other lan- conditions of the study of Oriental languages, in guages in the region that were obviously similar to Sweden and in Europe during the 16th and 17th Hebrew and – this was clearly understood – were centuries. somehow related to this language. Hence, the The Oriental languages that young Peringer and Chaldean language (i.e. what we call Aramaic to- his contemporaries embraced with such enthusi- day) and also Syriac and Arabic came to be objects asm were those of the Near and Middle East (as we of linguistic investigation. Their vocabulary was would describe the area today). And it was – of studied, as well as their syntax and morphology. course – Hebrew studies that was the origin and During the 17th century Biblical scholars gradually the primary reason for scholarly activity in this became even more polyglot through the investiga- area. tion of Ethiopic and even more exotic tongues. The Protestant Reformation had given a strong The learned Hiob Ludolf of Frankfurt (1624–1704), impetus to linguistic Oriental studies. To the Re- who founded the study of Ethiopic, is said to have formed Churches, the original text of the Bible was mastered 25 languages (Jöcher 1750–1751). The ba- programmatically at the centre of interest; this sis of their knowledge was always the Classical lan- added strong stimuli, from the very beginning, to guages, and they all published their treatises in the philological study of the Hebrew text of the Latin. Old Testament and the Greek text of the New. These studies were held in high esteem, and From such a perspective and with such ambitions, this kind of Biblical exegesis attracted many of the the Vulgate was no longer sufficient. Scholars of best talents of the period. It goes without saying philology were enrolled in the service of theology. that the study of Hebrew and its cognate languag- As regards the Hebrew of the Old Testament, es was valued and supported in Sweden, where scholars had long realized that the exegesis of the schools and learned activities were dominated text was extremely complicated, primarily because and controlled by Lutheran orthodoxy. Hebrew the language is only known through the books of was already studied at the gymnasium level. At the Old Testament. It cannot be interpreted with Uppsala University, we find a series of learned

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004435858_007 Gustaf Peringer’s Speech In Praise Of The Oriental Languages (1674) 83 professors of Oriental languages in the middle of infrequentia), and he therefore urgently requests the 17th century, among them the eccentric Ger- all students that still remain in Uppsala to attend man scholar Christian Ravius, who had been sum- the meeting. moned to Uppsala by Queen Christina and held In the printed version, the speech of the young the chair of Hebrew, Chaldean and Syriac during Orientalist is very long. It comprises 51 pages in oc- the years 1659–1661, as well as Johan Petri Bus- tavo. If it was really read in extenso, the perfor- kagrius (who was Professor 1661–1672), and Uno mance ought to have taken from 2 ½ to 3 hours. It Johannis Terserus (Professor 1672–1675). is not at all improbable that it did last that long. Such was the situation when the young, talent- The habits and expectations of 17th- century schol- ed and ambitious Gustaf Peringer held his oration ars were radically different from our own. They on the Oriental languages at the age of 23. Six were used to listening to sermons that were ap- months earlier he had returned from his first proximately that long, and we know of recitations learned peregrination, which had lasted four years. of poems that took two or three hours, or more. It can be mentioned here that Andreas Stobaeus (1642–1714), professor poeseos in Lund, used to re- 2 The Speech cite his long hexameter poems extolling the deeds of Charles XI and Charles XII; in several instances Peringer held his speech on the 17th of June, 1674, they are longer than 1000 lines and the perfor- in the so-called Gustavianum, which at the time mance must have taken more than two hours was the main University building. His oration had (Berggren 1994: 32, 283 f). been publicly announced by the Rector Magnifi- I shall try to summarize what Peringer told his cus, the above-mentioned Uno Joannis Terserus, audience about the Oriental languages and also son of Johannes Terserus, Bishop of Åbo and him- comment upon the leading ideas in the speech. self an outstanding Hebraist, as beginning at 10 The oration is highly eloquent, but it certainly a.m (Meyer 1905: 82). It was to be printed in Stock- does not consist of idle talk. On the contrary, holm later that year. The title is Concio laudibus ac Peringer wants to inform and teach his listeners eulogiis nobiliorum in Orbe Eoo idiomatum dicta in about things that he considers to be of great im- Athenaeo Upsaliensi septentrionalium Principe, XV portance, and the speech is a perspicuous and in- Cal. Quinctil. Anni Christiani MDCLXXIV a Gustavo telligent summary of the knowledge about the Peringer ‘Public speech in praise of the more noble Oriental languages that was available in the mid- among the languages of the Oriental world, held at 1670s. Peringer takes great care to refer to the emi- the Upsalian Atheneum [i.e. Uppsala University], nent scholars who have elucidated this area in the most outstanding in the North, on the 17th of previous generations, and he is proud and eager to June, by Gustaf Peringer’. tell his audience about the rapid and conspicuous On a solemn occasion like this, a number of progress that had been made in this field. professors would of course be present, along with It is reasonable to assume that the listeners who other academic teachers and students. (According had gathered could stay awake during the session, to the University programmes, there were 16 such despite the summer temperature. solemn gatherings during 1674.) We have reason to The speech starts with a declaration of mod- believe, however, that the audience may have been esty, exactly as is to be expected, since this topos somewhat smaller than usual, considering the is almost compulsory at the beginning of a eulogy time of the year. In the academic program the Rec- from this time. Peringer states, with emphasis, that tor Magnificus explicitly states that many students he is completely unqualified to elucidate the sub- may be absent at this time of the year (si quae ju- ject of his speech in a satisfactory way. He com- ventutis Academicae in hoc anni tempus incidit pares the task he has undertaken to a voyage on a