(Job), a very learned writer of the 17th century, was born at Erfurt in Thuringia. He travelled much, and was master of 25 languages; visited libraries, searched after natural curiosities and antiquities every where, and conversed with learned men of all nations. He published A History of Ethiopia, and other curious books.

(Henry William), nephew of Job above-mentioned, was born at Erfurt in 1655. He came over to England as secretary to M. Lenthe, envoy from the court of Copenhagen to that of London; and being recommended to Prince George of Denmark, was received as his secretary. He enjoyed this office for some years, until he was incapacitated by a violent disorder; when he was discharged with a handsome pension: after he recovered, he travelled into Muscovy, where he was well received by the czar, and where his knowledge made the Muscovite priests suppose him to be a conjuror. On his return to London in 1694, he was cut for the stone; and as soon as his health would permit, in acknowledgment of the civilities he had received in Muscovy, he wrote a grammar of their language, that the natives might learn their own tongue in a regular method. He then travelled into the East, to inform himself of the state of the Christian church in the Levant; the deplorable condition of which induced him, after his return, with the aid of the bishop of Worcester, to print an edition of the New Testament in the vulgar Greek, to present to the Greek church. In 1709, when such numbers of Palatines came over to England, Mr Ludolph was appointed by Queen Anne one of the commissioners to manage the charities raised for them; and he died early the following year. His collected works were published in 1712.