De Buck read
theology in Leiden (1911–1916) with
Pierre Daniel Chantepie de la Saussaye and
William Brede Kristensen. He studied several
Semitic languages (among them
Arabic), and specialized in ancient
Egyptian which he first read with
Pieter Boeser. He then continued his studies in Egyptology in Göttingen and Berlin (1917–1921) with
Adolf Erman and
Kurt Sethe. De Buck was ordained minister in the
Dutch Reformed Church and served in the small town of
Ursem (1921–1925). On 6 July 1922 he received his doctorate in theology from Leiden University on a thesis titled
De Egyptische voorstellingen betreffende den oerheuvel (“The Egyptian depictions concerning the primeval hill”), supervised by W.B. Kristensen. In 1924 he was approached by the
Chicago University Oriental Institute concerning an international project for the publication of a complete text edition of the Egyptian
Coffin Texts. He stepped down from his ministry in Ursem to work on the project, although he continued to occasionally preach in Leiden and its surroundings. De Buck worked on the text edition (together with
Alan Gardiner) until his death, producing seven volumes. The first volume appeared in 1935, the last volume posthumously in 1961. This indispensable reference work is De Buck's greatest contribution to Egyptology. It consists of over 3,000 pages of handwritten hieroglyphic text. In 2005 the series was supplemented with a further volume composed by
J.P. Allen. De Buck was appointed
lector at Leiden University in 1928, then
professor extraordinarius in 1939 and full professor in 1949. From 1939 to 1955 De Buck and
Assyriologist Franz Böhl were co-directors of the
Netherlands Institute for the Near East in Leiden. In 1947 the
International Association of Egyptologists was founded, aiming at publication of the
Annual Egyptological Bibliography; De Buck was appointed chairman. De Buck often gave lectures for the public society
Ex Oriente Lux; he was a member of its advisory board and an editor of its annual
Jaarbericht (
JEOL). He participated in the “Serabit Expedition” (epigraphic expedition of
Harvard University and
Catholic University in the
Sinai) in 1930. He was a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1941) and
Teylers Eerste Genootschap (1951–1959). De Buck married Anna Elisabeth Nordenberg (1894–1986; a
Swedish national) on 30 June 1924. The couple had two daughters and a son. == Select bibliography ==