tion, in printing the ARABIC BIBLE, is a decisive proof of the reluctance of the church of Rome, to disseminate the Word of God indiscriminately among its members. This Bible, which occupied 46 years in the translation and revision of it, was undertaken in 1625, by order of Pope Urban VIII. at the earnest request of several Oriental prelates, and committed to the care of the cardinals of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide, who employed SERGIUS RISIUS, the Maronite archbishop of Damascus, and PHILIP GUADAGNOLO, as the principal editors. With these were associated other learned men, both of the clergy and laity, who assembled at the palace of the archbishop, to assist in collating different copies with the original texts, the Oriental versions, and the Vulgate, as well as to aid in correcting the press. As soon as the PENTATEUCH was completed, it was printed at the office of the Congregation De Propagandá Fide, in folio, accompanied with the Vulgate in a parallel column. On the death of Sergius Risius, in 1638, the care of the translation and impression devolved entirely upon Guadagnolo, who finished the OLD TESTAMENT in 1647, and the NEW TESTAMENT, which completed the work, in 1650. Before the translation had obtained the sanction of the pope, and been permitted to be published, 1609, both of them made by Cardinal Allen, Dr. Stapleton, Dr. Bristow, and especially by Dr. Gregory Martin. This translation is allowed by most learned Protestants to be eminently faithful, even to a fault, by its adopting literal barbarisms into it. These have been in a great measure corrected, and the notes which accompanied the said Testament and Bible have been cut down to a tenth part of their former length, by the late Dr. Richard Challoner, bishop of Debra, vicar apostolic, whose work appeared in 1750. The same prelate published The Morality of the Bible, and an Abridgment of it. The Rev. Mr. Reeve, a member of Stonyhurst, has published The History of the Bible, being, for the most part, borrowed from a French work under the same title, by the Sieur Royaumont. Your present correspondent has, within these few weeks, published a Summary of the Holy Scriptures for the use of Catholic schools and families. This, Rev. Sir, is the substance of the subjects on which you have been pleased to consult me.

J. MILNER, D. D."

some few copies were surreptitiously obtained; but on the suggestion of one of the learned men associated with the editors, that the version did not sufficiently correspond with the Vulgate, the edition was ordered to be suppressed, until it had been again examined and corrected. ABRAHAM ECCHELLENSIS, and LOUIS MARACCI, were appointed by the Congregation De Propagandá Fide, to revise the translation, and render it more conformable to the Vulgate. This version was completed in 1664; a new preface, and index of Errata, were added by Maracci, in 1668; and in 1671, the entire Bible was published in 3 vols. fol. The greater part of the copies were transmitted to the East, where, however, the translation was deemed barbarous, and met with considerable opposition from the members of the Eastern churches, who regarded the corrections from the Vulgate as corruptions of the text."

SERGIUS RISIUS, the learned Maronite-archbishop of Damascus, came to Rome, with a design of obtaining the publication of the Arabic Scriptures, about the year 1624, and for that purpose brought with him a number of MSS. of the Arabic Bible. An edition had been commenced, and the Pentateuch printed, when the pious editor was called to his reward, August 29th, 1638. Before he visited Rome, the archbishop edited the PSALMS in Syriac and Arabic, printed at the Monastery of St. Anthony, and St. John the Evangelist, on Mount Libanus, 1610, fol. According to Leo Allatius, he also translated the SYRIAC PENTATEUCH, and the Prophets ISAIAH and JEREMIAH, into Latin, which were never published; Cornelius à Lapide further says that he translated the whole BIBLE, and that MS. copies remained in the Vatican and Medicean Libraries."

(5) Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse, III. pp. 425-431.

Le Long, ed. Masch, pt. ii. vol. I. sec. 5, pp. 114-116. (6) Allatii Apes Urbanæ, p. 233. Clement, ut sup. Le Long, I. p. 305.

PHILIP GUADAGNOLO was an Italian of Magliano, where he was born about 1596. After passing through his studies, he entered into the order of the Regular Minor Clerks, and devoted himself so entirely to the acquisition of languages, that he gained a knowledge of the Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Persian, and Arabic tongues, in the last of which he particularly excelled, and taught it many years, in the College Della Sapienza, at Rome. In 1631, he published in Latin, an "Apology for the Christian Religion," against the objections of Ahmed fil. Zin Alabedin, a learned Persian, printed at Rome, at the office of the Congregation De Propagandá Fide, in 4to. This work he afterwards translated into Arabic, and printed in 1637. He also published Institutiones linguæ Arabicæ, Romæ, 1642, fol., and compiled an Arabic Lexicon, left in MS. at his death, and preserved in the convent of San Lorenzo, in Lucina. He died at Rome, March 27th, 1656.7

ABRAHAM ECCHELLENSIS was a learned Maronite, and was invited from Rome to Paris, by the celebrated Le Jay, to assist in the publication of his Polyglott Bible, for which he was allowed 600 golden crowns annually. At Paris he became professor of the Syriac and Arabic languages in the Royal College; but being chosen one of the editors of the Arabic Bible, by the Congregation De Propaganda Fide, he returned to Rome, and was appointed professor of the Oriental languages. He died in 1664, at an advanced age. The works which he published constitute an irrefragable proof of his extensive acquaintance with Oriental literature."

LOUIS MARACCI was born at Lucca, in Italy, in 1612, became a member of the congregation of Regular Clerks of "the Mother of God." He obtained considerable

(7) Colomesii Italia et Hispania Orientalis, p. 188.

Chalmers, XVI. p. 419.

(8) Nouv. Dict. Historique, III. p. 392.

celebrity, by publishing an edition of the KORAN, in Arabic and Latin, printed at Padua, 1698, 2 vols. folio, with a life of Mohammed, and a refutation of the Koran. He taught Arabic in the college Della Sapienza, at Rome, with great success; and was so esteemed by Innocent X. for his virtues and learning, that he chose him for his confessor, and would have advanced him to the dignity of cardinal, but that the modesty of Maracci led him to refuse the honour. He died in 1700, at the great age of 87. Niceron, (Memoires, tom. XLI.) has given a list of his works."

An edition of the Arabic Bible had been projected, early in this century, by FRANCIS SAVARY DE Breves, who employed VICTOR SCIALAC, and GABRIEL SIONITA, as the translators and editors, but of which nothing more than the PSALMS was ever published. Of these there were two editions, one of the Arabic only, translated from the Greek, and printed in 1614; the other from the Syriac, with a Latin version, printed in the same year, both of them in quarto.10

The liberal projector of this undertaking, FRANCIS SAVARY DE BREVES, was a native of France, born towards the close of the sixteenth century. He was sent by the king of France as ambassador to Constantinople, where he remained twenty-two years. On his return, about 1611, Henry IV. sent him to Rome, as ambassador in the pontificate of Paul V. During his residence at the papal court, he attempted the publication of the Arabic Bible, as the means of reclaiming the Mohammedans from their errors, for which he considered the dispersion of vernacular translations most peculiarly calculated. With this design, he established an Oriental press, at which the editions above mentioned were printed; and engaged Scialac and Sionita, as editors and correc

(9) Nouv. Dict. Hist. V. p. 562.

(10) Le Long, edit. Masch, pt. ii. vol. I. sec. 5, pp. 122, 123.

tors.

From some cause, the further prosecution of the work was dropped. In 1615, Savary returned to Paris, taking with him Gabriel Sionita, and his printer, Stephen Paulin, who established the Oriental press in that city, under his patronage; and with a liberality characteristic of a great mind, he lent his types to those who were desirous of printing works in the Oriental languages. He died in 1627. On his decease, we are told, the English and Dutch made proposals for the purchase of his types, and his Oriental MSS. of which he had brought ninety-seven from the East; but the whole were bought by the king of France. The types are said to be still extant in the royal printing office. Savary published an account of his travels, from which we learn that he recommended the extension of the commerce of his country, and the propagation of Christianity, by certain conquests in the East."

VICTOR SCIALAC was a Maronite from Mount Libanus, professor of the Arabic and Syriac languages in the college Della Sapienza, at Rome.'s

GABRIEL SIONITA was a Maronite, from Mount Libanus, professor of Oriental languages at Rome, from whence he went to Paris, and assisted Le Jay, in the publication of his magnificent Polyglott, who assigned to him the transcription and correction of the Syriac and Arabic versions, which were principally taken from copies brought by himself from the East. Unfortunately, disputes arose between Sionita and Le Jay, which led to his secession from the work, and occasioned him much ill treatment, and even imprisonment. Oppressed with melancholy, he sank into the grave, in 1648, after having held the royal professorship of the Syriac and Arabic tongues at Paris, and contributed greatly to

(11) Chalmers, XXVII. p. 193.

Le Long, I. Index Auctor, p. 580. (12) Ibid. I. Index Auctor. p. 581.