BOCHART, SAMUEL, one of the most learned men of the seventeenth century, was born at Rouen in Normandy, May 30. 1599. He early made great progress in learning, and became a proficient in the oriental languages. He was many years pastor of a Protestant church at Caen, and became tutor to Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, author of the essay on Translated Verse. While at Caen, he particularly distinguished himself by his public disputations with Father Veron, a Jesuit, and celebrated as a polemic. The dispute was held in the castle of Caen, in the presence of a great number of Catholics and Protestants, including among the former the Duke of Longueville. In 1646, Bochart published his Phaleg and Chanaan, which are the titles of the two parts of his Geographia Sacra. His Hierozoicon, which treats of the sacred animals of Scripture, was printed at London in 1675. In 1652, Christina, queen of Sweden, invited him to Stockholm; whither he repaired accompanied by Huet. On his return to Caen he resumed his duties as a minister of the gospel, married, and was received into the academy of that city. Bochart was a man of profound erudition; he possessed a thorough knowledge of the principal oriental languages, including the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, and Arabic; and such was his zeal for extending his acquirements, that at an advanced age he wished to learn Ethiopic. He was remarkable for modesty and candour; but so absorbed was he in his favourite study, that he saw Phœnician, and nothing but Phœnician, in everything, even in the words of the Celtic; and hence the prodigious number of chimerical etymologies which swarm in his works. He died at Caen, May 16. 1667. A complete edition of his works was published at Leyden, under the title of Sam. Bochart Opera Omnia: hoc est; Phaleg,
Chanaan, seu Geographia Sacra, et Hierozoicon, seu de Animalibus sacris Sacra Scriptura, et Dissertationes Variae, 1675, 2 vols. folio; 1692, 1712, 3 vols. folio.