Benito Arias Montano
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Benito Arias Montano
(1527–98), Editor of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible, born in Fregenal de la Sierra (Extramadura) and educated in Seville and Alcalá. He took holy orders in 1559 and three years later attended the Council of Trent as a theologian. In 1564 he retired as a hermit to Peña de Aracena, and was subsequently appointed professor of oriental languages and librarian at the Escorial.
Arias was sent to Antwerp at the behest of Philip II to edit the eight sumptuous folio volumes of the Antwerp Polyglot, entitled Biblia sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece et Latine, published by Christophe Plantin between 1568 and 1573. While working in Flanders, Arias purchased books and manuscripts on a huge scale for the Escorial; he also pursued his interests in Jewish antiquities and in philosophy and theology (on all of which he wrote) and wrote poetry in Latin and Spanish. His Spanish poetry is so indebted to the poetry of his friend Luis de León that problems of attribution have arisen, particularly with respect to ‘A la hermosura exterior de Nuestra Señora’. Like Fray Luis, Arias also wrote a vernacular paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, the ‘Paráfrasis sobre el cantar de los cantares’.
The emphasis that Arias placed on the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament in his edition of the Antwerp Polyglot was deemed to be heretical by León de Castro (a professor at Salamanca), who denounced Arias to the Inquisition. He travelled to Rome to appear before the tribunal (1575–6), and was eventually acquitted. On returning to Spain Arias was appointed as royal chaplain, but nonetheless withdrew to Peña de Aracena (1579–83). In 1584 he resigned his chaplaincy, and thereafter spent the rest of his life as a hermit at Santiago de la Espada, where he died in 1598.
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Benito Arias Montano
Benito Arias Montano (or Benedictus Arias Montanus) (1527–1598) was a Spanish orientalist and editor of the Antwerp Polyglot. He was born at Fregenal de la Sierra, in Extremadura and died at Seville. He is the subject of an Elogio histórico by Tomás Gonzalez Caral in the Memorias de la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid), vol. vii.
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Biography
After studying at the universities of Seville and Alcalá, he took orders about the year 1559. He became a clerical member of the Military Order of St. James, and accompanied the Bishop of Segovia to the Council of Trent (1562) where he won great distinction.
On his return he retired to a hermitage at Aracena whence he was summoned by Philip II (1568) to supervise a new polyglot edition of the Bible, with the collaboration of many learned men. The work was issued from the Plantin press (1572, 8 volumes) under the title Biblia sacra hebraice chaldaice, graece et latine, Philippi II regis catholici pietate et studio ad sacrosanctae Ecclesiae usum, several volumes being devoted to a scholarly apparatus biblicus. Arias was responsible for a large part of the actual matter, besides the general superintendence, and in obedience to the command of the king took the work to Rome for the approbation of Pope Gregory XIII.
León de Castro, professor of Oriental languages at Salamanca, to whose translation of the Vulgate Arias had opposed the original Hebrew text, denounced Arias to the Roman, and later to the Spanish Inquisition for having altered the Biblical text, making too liberal use of the rabbinical writings, in disregard of the decree of the Council of Trent concerning the authenticity of the Vulgate, and confirming the Jews in their beliefs by his Chaldaic paraphrases. After several journeys to Rome Arias was freed of the charges (1580) and returned to his hermitage, refusing the episcopal honours offered him by the king. He accepted, however, the post of a royal chaplain, but was only induced to leave his retirement for the purpose of superintending the Escorial library and of teaching Oriental languages.
He led the life of an ascetic, dividing his time between prayer and study. In addition to the works written in connection with the polyglot, the most celebrated of which is Antiquitatum judaicarum libri IX (Leyden, 1593), Arias left many commentaries on various books of the Bible; also: Humanae salutis monumenta (Antwerp, 1571); a Latin translation of the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, and other works on widely varying subjects. He was also celebrated as a poet, his verses being chiefly of a religious nature.
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References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Benedictus Arias Montanus". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.- Rekers, B., Benito Arias Montano (1527–1598). Studies of the Warburg Institute, 33. London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1972.
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