The New International Encyclopædia/Amama, Sixtinus

AMA'MA, Sixtinus (1503-1629). A Dutch Orientalist. He was born at Franeker, Friesland, studied Oriental languages at the University there, and subsequently at Exeter College, Oxford. He succeeded Drusius as professor of Hebrew at Franeker. In 1625 he was called to Leyden, but the Estates of Friesland refused to permit him to go. He was among the first to advocate a thorough knowledge of the original languages of the Bible as indispensable to theologians. His works include Dissertatio qua Ostenditur Præcipuos Papismi Errores ex Ignorantia Hebraismi Ortum Sumpsisse (1618), Censura Vulgatæ Versionis V. Librorum Mosis (1620), and a Hebreouwsch Woordenboek (1628).