The German humanist and jurist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) was one of the greatest Hebraists of early modern Europe. He was involved in a great controversy concerning Hebrew literature that culminated in the famous "Letters of Obscure Men."

Johann Reuchlin was born at Pforzheim. He studied at Freiburg, Paris, Basel, and Rome; became a doctor of law; and began an impressive career as a public official and jurist. Reuchlin's studies in Italy had acquainted him with humanism, and his command of Greek and Latin was as accomplished as that of any scholar north of the Alps. A second journey to Italy, in 1492, caused Reuchlin to become interested in Hebrew, which he then studied intensely and described in a short book in 1494. Reuchlin soon became the most accomplished Gentile Hebraist of the Renaissance, and in 1506 he produced a grammar of Hebrew entitled Rudimenta Hebraica. His linguistic studies led Reuchlin to...