PERINGER, GUSTAV, VON LILIENBLAD:

By: Crawford Howell Toy, S. Mannheimer

Christian Orientalist; born 1651; died at Stockholm Jan. 5, 1710; studied under Wagenseil at Altdorf. He was professor of Oriental languages at Upsala from 1681 to 1695, and then librarian at Stockholm. About 1690 King Charles XI. of Sweden sent him to Poland on a mission to the Karaites, for the purpose of gathering information concerning their customs and manner of life, of buying their works, and probably also of converting them to Christianity. Provided with a letter of recommendation to the King of Poland, Peringer went first to Lithuania, where there existed several Karaite communities; but nothing is known as to the result of his mission. Most probably it was without success (see Jew. Encyc. vii. 444, s.v. Karaites).

Peringer translated into Latin the following treatises and works: the tractates 'Abodah Zarah (inserted by Surenhusius in his Latin translation of the Mishnah) and Tamid (Altdorf, 1680); Zacuto's "Sefer Yuḥasin" (see Wolf, "Bibl. Hebr." p. 66, No. 163); various parts of Maimonides' "Mishneh Torah" (ib. i. 847; iii. 775, 777-778); a fragment of the "Massa'ot" of Samuel ben David the Karaite, travels in Palestine in 1641 (Upsala, n. d.; published in Hebrew and Latin in Wolf, l.c. iii. 1080-1094; Hebrew and Latin in Ugolino's "Thesaurus," vii.; French transl. by Carmoly in his "Itinéraires,"p. 497, Brussels, 1847). Peringer wrote also "Dissertatio de Tephillin sive Phylacteriis," Upsala, 1690.

T. S. Man.