Johannes Reuchlin

Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) was a German humanist and a distinguished Christian scholar of Greek and Hebrew. Born at Pforzheim, he learned Greek in Paris and lectured at Basel, later serving Count Eberhard of Württemberg as a diplomat. Ennobled in 1492, he learned Hebrew and published De Verbo Mirifico in 1494 and the kabbalistic dialogue De Arte Cabalistica.

When the Dominicans moved to destroy Jewish books, he defended Hebrew literature before the Inquisition. He later taught Hebrew at Ingolstadt and Tübingen and died at Stuttgart.