Hiob or Job Ludolf (Iobus Ludolfus; June 156, 1624 - April 8, 1704) was a German orientalist, linguist, and philologist. He has been hailed as having earned 'the most illustrious name in Ethiopic scholarship.' He studied philology at Erfurt academy and Leiden university, but thereafter traveled broadly to build a daunting collection of languages (he is understood to have had familiarity with twenty five, and was a correspondent on the subject of linguistics with Leibniz.) During a visit to Rome, he met and befriended Abba Gorgoryos, a monk from the Ethiopian province of Amhara. From him, Ludolf was able to learn the Amharan Ethiopic language. Ludolf's Ethiopic and Amharic works were for more than a century the best means for a European to learn those languages, and his history of Ethiopia remains important to this day. His interest in Ethiopia would not be limited to history and linguistics: he attempted to promote European trade with Ethiopia, even visiting England in 1683 to do so. His efforts failed, primarily due to resistance on the part of the leadership of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Thereafter he returned to Frankfurt in 1684 to write; in 1690 he became president of the Collegium Imperiale Historicum.



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