JOHANN HEINRICH, an eminent Swiss orientalist and biblical scholar, was born at Zurich in 1620. At the gymnasium of his native town, he distinguished himself so much that the curators determined to supply him with the means of pursuing his studies at the best foreign universities. He first settled at Groningen, and afterwards at Leyden, where he became assistant to Golius, the best orientalist of that age. He also took lessons in Arabic and Turkish from Ahmed Jon Ali, a Mohammedan, from Morocco, of whom he often speaks in his works. Golius had hoped to take his pupil with him to the East, but the senate of Zurich interfered, and Hottinger, after visiting France and England, returned home. In 1653, the chairs of rhetoric, logic, and scriptural theology were offered him, and he had only filled them for two years, when, at the urgent request of the Elector Palatine, he was allowed to remove to Heidelberg for three years. He there taught the Eastern tongues and biblical criticism with such success and distinction, as to revive and spread the fame of the university. Prolonging his stay in the Palatinate till 1661, he returned to Zurich in that year, and was made rector of the university. His reputation still continued to increase, and in 1667 he received such flattering offers from Leyden, that he resolved to accept them. Before setting out for this new sphere of labour, he went to visit a small property which he possessed a few miles from Zurich. In crossing the Limath, the boat in which he was seated, with his wife and family, was upset, and Hottinger, who might have preserved his own life, was drowned in attempting to save that of his wife.

Hottinger's principal works are.—Exercitationes Anti-Mormonianae de Pentateuchio Samaritano, Zurich, 1644, in 4to; Exercitationum Libri Sancti libri duo, cum Appendice Aphorismorum, ibid. 1647; Theaurus Philologicus, seu Clavis Scripturae qua quidquid fere Orientalium, Hebraeorum maxime et Arabum habent monumenta de Religionibus ejusque varitis speciebus, Judaismo, Samaritanismo, Muhammadismo, Gentilismo, &c., ibid. 1649; Historia Ecclesiastica Novi Testamenti, in nine parts, 1651-1667; Historia Orientalis ex variis Monumentis Collecta, ibid. 1651, in 4to; Grammatica Chaldaica Syriaca libri duo, ibid. 1652; Analytica Historico-Theologica, octo Dissertatibus praeposita, Dissertatio de Substantia Animalium, ibid. 1654, in 4to; Dissertatio de Substantia Animalium, ibid. 1654, in 4to; Juris Hellenorum leges 291, justa Legis Moabica ordinata, ac servum deprehensor; Synopsis Orientale scribibus barbaricis contemptu praetermissa Lingua Latinae appositum, Heidelberg, 1657, in 4to; Grammatica Lib. Hebr. Chalda, Syr. et Aramaic Harmonica, ibid. 1657; Cippi Hebraici, ibid. 1659, in 8vo; Primitiae Heidelbergenses, ibid. 1659; Dissert. Theolog. Philolog. fasciculus, ibid. 1660; Etymologicum Orientale, sive Lexicon Harmonicum Heptaplattonis, 1661, in 4to; Epistola utriusque Juris Judaeici, Apokrinis Maimonides exhibita, ibid. 1661; Compendium Theologiae Christianae Ecclesiasticorum Orientalium, Synopsis cum primis, Ethiopicis, Arabum, ac Egyptianorum; Compendium Theologiae Iesuiticae libri Sexcentum, ibid. 1662, in 8vo; Bibliothecaerius tripotatus, Zurich, 1664, in 4to.