Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf
German Pietist, secretary to Prince George of Denmark, and ecumenical traveller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf (20 December 1655 – 25 January 1712) was a German Pietist, secretary to Prince George of Denmark, and ecumenical traveller. He is known also as a linguist.
Life
Ludolf was the nephew of Hiob Ludolf the linguist.[1] He acted as a Danish and as an English diplomat. A friend of August Hermann Francke, he travelled to Russia in the 1690s.[2] He had persuaded Francke that the territories related to the Eastern Orthodox Church were important for the future.[3] Gottfried Leibniz saw the importance of Ludolf's efforts on an even larger scale, bridging the gap to China.[4]
Ludolf was also one of the founders of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London, and with Anton Wilhelm Böhme linked it to Francke's organisations in Halle.[5]
Works
Ludolf's Grammatica Russica was published at Oxford in 1696.[6] This Russian grammar had an introduction that showed, among other remarks, that Russian-speakers themselves distinguished between the spoken Russian language, and Church Slavonic.[7]