EMPEREUR, CONSTANTIN L', OF OPPIJCK:
Professor of theology and Oriental languages; born at Bremen July, 1591; died at Leyden July 1, 1648. His father, Antonius Cæsar, driven from his native country by religious persecution, went to Holland. Constantin graduated in 1619, and in the same year became professor of theology and Oriental languages at the University of Harderwijk, where he remained for eight years.
In 1627 he was called to the University of Leyden, where a chair of Christian polemics had been established under the title "controversarium Judaicarum professor." In instituting this chair the university had two aims in view: to defend the Christian religion against the attacks of the Jews, and to convert Jews to Christianity. Constantin discharged his duties, which were rather those of a missionary than of a professor, with much tact and moderation, always avoiding aggressiveness.
Constantin published the following works: "Erpenii Grammatica Chaldæica, Syra et Æthiopica; Talmudis Babylonici Codex Middoth," Amsterdam, 1628; "Sjomari Lyra Davidis," Leyden, 1628; "Tractatus Middot, sive de Mesura Templi," ib. 1630; "Abrabanelis et Aliorum Commentatio in Jesaicum" (Hebrew and Latin), ib. 1631; "Moses Kimchi Introductio ad Scientiam," etc., 1631; "Josephi Jachiadæ Paraphrasis in Danielem," Amsterdam, 1633; "Itinerarium Benjaminis a Tudela" (Hebrew and Latin), Leyden, 1633; "Clavis Talmudica, Completens Formulas, Loca Dialectica et Rhetorica Priscorum Judæorum," ib. 1634; "De Legibus Ebræorum Forensibus," ib. 1637; "Disputationes Theologicæ Hardervicenæ sive Systema Theologicum," ib. 1648; "B. C. Bertramus, de Republica Ebræorum" ib. 1651.
- Kuenen, Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland, pp. 259, 260;
- Siegenbeck, Geschiedenis der Leidsche Hoogeschoole, i. 136, 157, 166;
- Müller, Cat. van Porter, p. 78;
- Paquet, Histoire Littéraire des Pays-Bas, iii. 411 et seq.;
- Steinschneider, in Zeit. für Hebr. Bibl. ii. 149.
