Ignatius von Weitenauer
Ignatius von Weitenauer was a German Jesuit writer, exegete, and Orientalist.
Life
Weitenauer was born at Ingolstadt, Bavaria. His family had been knighted by the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph. After the ordinary studies of the Society of Jesus, which he entered November 3, 1724, he taught for eleven years poetry and rhetoric in several colleges, mainly at Eichstätt. In 1753 he was called to the chair of philosophy and Semitic languages at the University of Innsbruck. When his career as professor was abruptly brought to an end by the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, he followed an invitation of the abbot of the Cistercians of Salem Abbey to continue his literary activity in the monastery. He died at Salem near Constance in Württemberg, at the age of 73.Works
Prior to his call to Innsbruck, Weitenauer published several occasional works, festive odes and plays, of high merit. It was, however, during his professorship at Innsbruck that he composed his numerous learned works, the principal of which are:- Biblia sacra : a commentary based on a comparison of the Vulgate with the original text
- Lexicon biblicum, an explanation of difficult Hebrew and Greek phrases occurring in the Vulgate, republished frequently, even as late as 1866
- Hierolexicon linguarum orientalium, 1, together with a grammar "Trifolium hebraicum, chaldaicum et syriacum"
- Modus addiscendi...linguas gallicam, italicam, hispanicam, graecam, hebraicam et chaldaicam, which he supplemented in 1762 by the Hexaglotton alterum docens linguas anglicam, germanicam, belgicam, latinam, lusitanicam et syriacam, Latin, Lusitanian, both of them appearing under the title "Hexaglotton geminum"