Baratier, John Philip

Baratier, John Philip an eminent boy-scholar, was born January 19th, 1721, at Schwabach, in Anspach. His father, Francis, was pastor of the French Protestant church in Schwabach, and gave his son careful education from infancy. At five years old he could speak Latin, French, and German, and at seven he knew by heart the Psalms in Hebrew. In his tenth: year he composed a Hebrew Dictionary of rare words, and in his thirteenth he translated the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (Amst. 1734, 2 vols. 8vo). He afterward applied himself to ecclesiastical history, the fathers, and theology, and answered a Unitarian work which Crellius published (under the name of Artemonius) in a book entitled Antiartemonius (Nuremb. 1735). In 1735, on his way to Berlin, he passed through Halle, where he was made M.A.; upon which occasion he composed, impromptu, fourteen theses in the presence of the professors, and on the following day defended them for three hours before a public audience with entire success. At Berlin he was received with honor by the king, and was enrolled among the members of the Royal Society. At the king's request he established himself at Halle to study law, and died there October 5th, 1740, being only nineteen years of age. He also published Disquisitio Chronologica de Successione antiquissima Rom. Pontificum (Utrecht, 1740, 4to), and some other works. His life, by Formey, was published at Halle, 1741 (2d ed. Frankfort, 1755).Biog. Univ. 3, 322; Landon, Eccl. Dict. s.v.