# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boate, Arnold

​BOATE, DE BOOT, BOOTIUS, or BOTIUS, ARNOLD (1600?–1653?), Hebraist, was the son of Godefrid de Boot of Gorcom, Holland. Born about 1600 he graduated at the university of Leyden, where he received the degree of doctor of medicine, and applied himself assiduously to the study of Hebrew rabbinical writings. His labours in that direction were mainly in relation to questions which had been raised concerning the various readings in the Hebrew text of the Bible, and the possibility of correcting them by the Septuagint. Boate's first work appears to have been that produced in conjunction with Francis Taylor, and published at Leyden in 1630 with the following title: 'Examen Præfationis Morini in Biblia Graeca de textus Ebraici corruptione et Graeci authoritate: cujus auctores Franciscus Taylor et Arnoldus Bootius.' The publication consisted of 226 pages, 12mo, and the preface was dated at London in October 1636. About this time Boate entered into correspondence with Primate Ussher, then engaged on biblical and chronological works. At his instance Boate became a resident in Dublin, where many Dutch merchants then carried on trade, and through Ussher's influence he soon acquired extensive medical practice. A treatise by Boate and his brother Gerard depreciatory of the Aristotelian philosophy was published at Dublin in 1641, with the following title: 'Philosophia Naturalis reformata, id est Philosophiæ Aristotelicæ accurata exaininatio ac solida confutatio et novæ et verioris introductio. Per Gerardum et Arnoldum Bootios, fratres Hollandos, medicinæ doctores.' This volume of three hundred and eighty pages in small quarto was dedicated to Robert Sydney, earl of Leicester, then recently appointed to the viceroyalty of Ireland, and father of Algernon Syaney. Prefixed to the book were also dedicatory epistles to Primate Ussher and to the university of Leyden, of which the authors designated themselves 'quondam alumni.' A certificate was also prefixed under date of 18 Jan. 1640–1, from Edward Parry chaplain to the archbishop of Dublin, and subsequently bishop of Ossory. On Christmas day 1642 Boate was married at Dublin to Margaret, daughter of Thomas Dungan, ​justice of the common pleas in Ireland. She was at the time of her marriage in her seventeenth year, and is described as of great beauty, and endowed with rare abilities, virtues, and accomplishments. In addition to his 'ample and flourishing practice' at Dublin Boate was engaged as physician-general of the English forces in Ireland, large numbers of which were then employed there against the Irish confederates. An interesting medical work by Boate — ' Observationes medicæ de affectibus a veteribus omissis' 12mo) — appeared in 1649 (cf. Haller's Bibl. Med.) Boate quitted Ireland in May 1644, and in that year published in quarto at London a treatise with the following title on the Hebrew text of the Old Testament: 'Animadversiones sacræ ad textum Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti: in quibus loci multi difficiles hactenus non satis intellecti vulgo, multseque phrases obscuriores ac vocabula parum adhuc percepta explicantur. . . . Auctore Amoldo Bootio, M.D. Boate's work was severely criticised by the erudite Louis Capel, professor at the protestant university at Saumur, whose treatise, entitled 'Arcanum Punctuationis revelatum,' published in 1624, was regarded as an assault on the integrity of the Hebrew text of the Bible, Boate fixed his residence at Paris, and maintained correspondence with Ussher, who acknowledged his obligations to him for valuable aid and for information in connection with continental manuscripts, and with the works of erudition in progress abroad. A reply to criticisms by Louis Capel was published by Boate at Paris in 1650, addressed to Ussher, and entitled 'De Textus Hebraici Veteris Testamenti certitudine et authoritate contra Ludovici Capelli criticam Epistola Amoldi Bootii ad reverendissimum Jacobum Usserium archiepiscopum Armachanum.' To this publication were appended a letter dated August 1650, from Ussher to Boate, and an appendix addressed by the latter to Buxtorf. Boate's wife died in her twenty-fifth year at Paris in April 1651. As a memorial of her virtues and of his attachment to her he published there in the same year in English 'The Character of a Trulie Vertuous and Pious Woman, as it hath been acted by Mistris Margaret Dungan (wife to Doctor Arnold Boate) in the constant course of her whole life.' This small volume, apparently unknown to bibliographers, was inscribed to Thomas Syderserf, the deprived bishop of Galloway, who contributed to it a Latin elegy on the deceased lady. Boate's views as to the Hebrew text of the Bible were vindicated by Ussher in a Latin letter addressed by him to Capel in 1652. In that year we find Boate in communication with Samuel Hartlib in reference to the publication of 'Ireland's Naturall History ' — a work prepared by Boate's brother Gerard [q. v.] The last printed work of Boate appears to have been a quarto volume of two hundred and forty pages, issued at Paris in 1658, with the following title: 'Arnoldi Bootii Vindiciæ seu apodixis apologetica pro Hebraica veritate contra duos notissimos et infensissimos ejus hostes, Johannem Morinum et Ludovicum Capellum.' Prefixed is a dedication, dated Paris, 6 May 1663, to Gisbert Voet, an eminent protestant theologian, professor of Hebrew in the university of Utrecht. The date of Boate's death has not been ascertained.
[Parr's Life of James Ussher, London, 1686 ; Works of Ussher, Dublin, 1848; Epistola Jacobi Usserii Armachani ad Ludovicum Capellum de variantibus textus Hebraici lectionibus, London, 1652, 1658; Bibliotheca Belgica, cura J. F. Foppens, Bruxelles, 1739; History of City of Dublin, 1854; Hist, of Irish Confederation and War in Ireland, 1641–43, Dublin, 1882.]
J. T. G.