Frey, Jean Louis

Frey, Jean Louis a Swiss theologian and philologist, was born at Basle in 1682, and died in thee same place in 1759. He is said to have been familiar with Hebrew at ten years of age. He was a pupil of Jean Buxtorf, under whom he studied Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. In 1703 he became a minister, and then traveled through Europe to increase his knowledge. In 1711 he was made professor of history and theology at Berne, and subsequently of Biblical exegesis, which chair he filled till his death. He was distinguished for the extent and variety of his knowledge. He left a considerable sum of money, and his own library of more than 8000 volumes, for the benefit of the library and students of the college at Basle. Together with other works, we have from him Disputatio in qua Mohammedis de Jesu-Christo sententia expenditur (Basle, 1703): — De Officio Doctoris Christiani dissertationes 4 (1711-1715). He edited a corrected and enlarged edition of Suicer's Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus (Amsterdam, 1728, 2 volumes, fol.), an edition of J. Grynseus's Opuscula, etc., and wrote many of the notes for the edition of the Patres Apostolici, published in Basle in 1742. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biogr. Generale, 18:841-2.