Ludolph Küster
Ludolf Küster (1670–1716) was a Westphalian scholar who studied Greek texts and edited ancient works. He was born in Blomberg and became a noted philologist, textual critic, and palaeographer. He was a friend and correspondent of Richard Bentley, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who helped him publish a quick edition of Aristophanes. Bentley’s contributions to that project were later criticized by some as mangled by Küster and careless printers. Bentley also assisted with an edition of the Suda (1705).
From 1697 to 1699 in Utrecht, Küster published Bibliotheca Librorum novorum under the pseudonym "Neocorus" (a Greek word related to Küster, meaning sexton). He often clashed with Dutch scholar Jakob Gronovius. In 1710 he issued a revised edition of John Mill’s Novum Testamentum Graecum (1707), adding prolegomena and collating twelve more manuscripts. It appeared in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with later reprints in Leipzig (1723) and Amsterdam (1746). Küster’s edition used twelve additional manuscripts, nine of which were collated by the abbé de Louvois; the works are now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He also published his own notes alongside Mill’s and expanded on the collations, making his edition more complete. He was the first to date the Boernerianus Codex to the 9th century.
In 1713 Küster traveled to Paris, spoke against Protestantism, was admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and received a pension of 2000 pounds. He is named in Alexander Pope’s Dunciad among notable classical scholars of his day.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:36 (CET).