BERTRAM, CORNEILLE BONAVENTURE:
Protestant clergyman and Hebraist; born at Thouars, France, in 1531; died at Lausanne, Switzerland, 1594. He studied at Poitiers, Paris, Toulouse, and Cahors. Learning, in the last-mentioned city, that the authorities had received an order to massacre all the Protestants, he fled to Geneva, where, in 1567, he became professor of Oriental languages in the university. Among many valuable works he wrote the following on Hebrew matters: (1) "Gal 'Ed" (Heap of Testimony), "Comparatio Grammaticæ Hebraicæ Aramaicæ," Geneva, 1574; (2) "De Politia Judaica tam Civili quam Ecclesiastica," Geneva, 1580, a work on Hebrew institutions and history, which enjoyed great popularity, and passed through many editions; (3) "Grammatica Hebraica et Arabica," Geneva, n. d.; (4) "Lucubrationes Frankentallenses, seu Specimen Expositionum in Difficiliora Utriusque Testamenti Loca," Frankenthal, 1586. Bertram also published a translation of the Bible very much appreciated at that time, Geneva, 1588. In this translation he followed Sebastian Munster and Tremelius; and very often he made use of rabbinic commentaries.
- Haag, La France Protestante, ii. 229-231;
- Dreux du Radier, Notice de C. B. Bertram, in Bibliothèque Historique et Critique de Poitou, iii. 1 et seq.;
- Steinschneider, Bibliographisches Handbuch, p. 22.
