Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Uri, Joannes
URI, JOANNES (1726–1796), orientalist, born in 1726 at Körös in Hungary, studied the oriental languages under J. J. Schultens at Leyden, where he took the degrees of Ph.D. and D.D., and published in 1761 a short treatise on Hebrew etymology called ‘Prima decas originum Hebræarum genuinarum,’ and also (for the Leyden library) an edition of the Arabic poem in honour of the prophet Mohammed called the ‘Burda,’ with a Latin translation and further notes on Hebrew etymology; this work he strangely dedicated ‘Deo ter O. M. atque amicis charissimis dilectissimis.’ In 1766, when the university of Oxford thought the time had come for a catalogue to be made of the oriental manuscripts which had been accumulating in the Bodleian Library for two hundred years, a savant was sought for in Holland to undertake this work, and by the advice of Sir Joseph Yorke (afterwards Baron Dever) [q. v.], then ambassador in the Netherlands, communicated to Archbishop Secker, Uri received an invitation to Oxford, where he was provided with a stipend and set to compile the required catalogue. After twenty years' preparation this catalogue appeared in 1787, bearing the title ‘Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ Codd. MStorum Orientalium videlicet Hebræorum, Chaldaicorum, Syriacorum, &c., Catalogus.’ Little praise, however, can be assigned it; besides numerous mistakes (corrected for the most part in the second volume of the catalogue by Nicoll and Pusey, which appeared in 1835), the arrangement is very faulty, different volumes of the same work frequently being registered many pages apart. While at Oxford he published an edition of some Persian and Turkish letters (1771), and also a short commentary on Daniel's Weeks with some other cruces of Old Testament exegesis. He is said to have given instruction in the oriental languages at Oxford, Joseph White [q. v.] being his most distinguished pupil. In his old age he was discharged by the delegates of the press, but by the kindness of Henry Kett [q. v.] and other friends he obtained a provision for his last years. He died at his lodgings in Oxford on 18 Oct. 1796.
[Gent. Mag. 1796 ii. 884, 1825 ii. 184; Life of Adam Clarke, 1833, vol. ii.; Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library.]