KÜSTER, LUDOLF, one of the best scholars and most learned men of his age, was born in 1670 at Blomberg in Westphalia. After studying at Berlin, he became, while still a very young man, tutor to the sons of the Count Von Schwerin, prime-minister of Prussia, and afterwards travelled through England, France, and Holland. In all these countries he formed friendships among the most eminent scholars of the day. As an author he first became known in 1696 by his Historia Critica Homeri, which was reprinted in 1785 by Wolff in his History of Homer and his Writings. Settling at Utrecht for a few years, he read lectures there publicly, and contributed to Gronovius' Thesaurus of Greek Antiquity, and to Grævis' Thesaurus of Roman Antiquities. He also set on foot a Latin periodical, under the title of Bibliotheca Librorum Nororum Collecta a L. Neocoro. Neocoro was the Greek equivalent for Küster, which means sexton, and had been given to him playfully by Grævis, in accordance with a practice common in that age. In 1700 he passed over to England, intent on bringing out a new edition of Suidas. In five years he had completed his task, which appeared at Cambridge in 1705 in 3 vols. folio. This work gave him a high rank among critical scholars, and he worthily maintained it by his edition of Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, Amsterdam, 1707, and, above all, by his splendid edition of Aristophanes, published in the same town in 1710. During his residence in that city, his Suidas was reviewed in a very ill-natured spirit by his old friend Gronovius. Küster replied in his Diatribæ Anti-Gronoviana, and silenced his critic, whose remarks had been dictated chiefly by a spirit of sullen jealousy. To his Diatribæ he appended a learned essay on the "as grave" of the Romans; and another, no less learned, on the verb "cerno," which he gave out as a specimen of new Thesaurus of the Latin tongue on which he had been engaged for some years. These dissertations involved him in an obstinate controversy with Perizonius, which, to the surprise of all, was carried on with perfect gentleness and moderation on both sides. Removing to Paris in 1713, Küster became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and received from Louis XIV. a pension of 2000 livres. Unfortunately he did not live long to enjoy his new honours, as he died in Paris in 1716. Though he was an admirable Latin scholar, it was
chiefly as a Hellenist that Küster was conspicuous among the great scholars of his age. Greek was his favourite study, and he attained a mastery over that tongue such as was equalled by few, if any, of his contemporaries.