BEELEN, THEODORE JOHANN:
Professor of Oriental languages at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; born at Amsterdam at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He devoted himself early to the study of Hebrew literature, especially rabbinical, and acquired much learning in this subject. Beelen is the author of a work, divided into three parts, entitled "Abne Ḥefez [Precious Stones], Chrestomathia Rabbinica et Caldaica cum Notis Grammaticis, Historicis, Theologicis, Glossario et Lexico Abbreviaturarum, quæ in Hebr.Script. Passim Occurent," Louvain, 1841. The first part, which is the most important—the other two being a mere supplement to it—is divided into ten chapters with the following headings: (1) Acute et Sapienter Dicta; (2) Sententiæ et Proverbiæ; (3) Fabulæ et Parabolæ; (4) Epistolæ Familiares; (5) Selecta Historiacarum; (6) Grammatici et Lexicographi; (7) Scripturæ Interpretes; (8) Philosophi et Theologi; (9) Talmudica; (10) Poeta. The author drew only to a slight extent from Plautavitius' "Florilegium Rabbinicum" and from Buxtorf—the greater part being taken from Jewish sources, such as Sefer Toledot ha-Ḳabalah, Seder 'Olam, Sifra, Mekilta, etc. In the poetical part the author made use of Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, Gabirol, etc.
- Literaturblatt des Orients, ii. 540;
- Steinschneider, Bibliographisches Handbuch;
- idem, Cat. Bodl. col. 783;
- Fürst, Bibliotheca Judaica, p. 19.
