Jacob Golius, bornJacob van Gool (1596 – September 28, 1667), was anOrientalist and mathematician based at theLeiden University in the Netherlands. He is primarily remembered as an Orientalist. He published Arabic texts in Arabic at Leiden, and did Arabic-to-Latin translations. His best-known work is an Arabic-to-Latin dictionary,Lexicon Arabico-Latinum (1653), which he sourced for the most part from theSihah dictionary ofAl-Jauhari and theQamous dictionary ofFairuzabadi.
Golius was born inThe Hague. He went to theUniversity of Leiden in 1612 to study mathematics. In 1618 he registered again to studyArabic and other Eastern languages at Leiden, where he was the most distinguished pupil ofErpenius. In 1622 he accompanied the Dutch embassy toMorocco, and on his return he was chosen to succeed Erpenius as professor of Arabic at Leiden (1625). In the following year he set out on a tour of the Eastern Mediterranean lands, from which he did not return until 1629.[1] A key purpose of the tour was to collect Arabic and Persian texts and bring them back to the Leiden University library.[2] Jacob also held ownership of a Malay-Dutch dictionary, it was sold toNarcissus Marsh in 1696 who bequethed it to theBodleian after his death.[3]
The remainder of his life was spent atLeiden where he held the chair ofmathematics as well as that of Arabic.[1]
Golius taught mathematics to the French philosopherRené Descartes, and later corresponded with him.[4] It is therefore highly probable that he was able to read to him parts of the mathematical Arabic texts he had started to collect, among others on the Conics.[5]
Among his earlier publications may be mentioned editions of various Arabic texts (Proverbia quaedam Alis, imperatoris Muslemici, et Carmen Tograipoetae doctissimi, necnon dissertatio quaedam Aben Synae, 1629; andAhmedis Arabsiadae vitae et rerum gestarum Timuri, gui vulgo Tamer, lanes dicitur, historia, 1636). In 1656 he published a new edition, with considerable additions, of theGrammatica Arabica of Erpenius. After his death, there was found among his papers aDictionarium Persico-Latinum which was published, with additions, byEdmund Castell in hisLexicon heptaglotton (1669). Golius also edited, translated and annotated theastronomical treatise of the 9th century Arabic astronomerAl-Farghani.[1][6]
Golius'sLexicon Arabico-Latinum, about 1500 pages, published at Leiden in 1653, was a big improvement on the Arabic-to-Latin dictionary ofFranciscus Raphelengius, which was published at Leiden in 1613. Golius possessed mainstream medieval Arabic dictionaries written solely in Arabic, and was able to translate their contents into Latin. Raphelengius did not have the benefit of seeing these Arabic dictionaries. Golius's dictionary was later improved and expanded byGeorg Freytag's Arabic-to-Latin dictionary in 1837.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Golius, Jacobus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 226.