Cornelis Kiliaan

Cornelis Kiliaan (1528, Duffel – 1607, Antwerp), was a 16th-century lexicographer, linguist, translator and poet of the Southern Netherlands.

His parents, Anna and Hendrick van Kiele Rechtstraets, were wealthy citizens of Duffel.

Plantin was clearly confident in the quality of Kiliaan because in 1565, he was appointed proofreader, a function reserved for scholars.

Perhaps it helped that after his mother died in 1564, the whole of the family wealth passed into Kiliaan's hands, leaving him free of financial worries and allowing him to pursue his studies on language and the Bible.

In 1574 he published a Dutch-Latin dictionary Dictionarium Teutonico-Latinum, with 12,000 entries, which was innovative because he indicated forms close to other related languages.