ARIAS MONTANO, BENITO. - Spanish Orientalist, exegete and humanist, b. in 1527 at Fregenal de la Sierra, d. at Seville on 6 July 1598. A priest around 1555, he made his religious profession in 1560 among the Knights of Santiago. From May 1562 he was at the Council of Trent as theologian to his confrere Martín Pérez de Ayala, bishop of Segovia; at the beginning of 1564 he returned to his austere hermitage of Peña de Alájar (today Peña de A. M.), near Seville. To rare virtue he joined a capacity for work and an erudition truly gigantic, so much so that posterity held him in the reputation of a magician. At the king's wish he founded the library of the Escorial (1566), which he then continued to enrich with manuscripts procured from every quarter, finally leaving it his rich collection of Hebrew, Arabic, Latin and Greek manuscripts.
His most extensive work is the edition of the Bible known as the Polyglotta regia, or of Antwerp, which he elaborated at Antwerp in the years 1568-72, at the wish of Philip II, published by the printer Christopher Plantin from 1569 to 1573, in 8 vols.: Biblia sacra, hebraice, chaldaice, graece et latine, Philippi II Regis Catholici pietate et studio ad Sacrosanctae Ecclesiae usum, cura et studio B.A.M.
In the first 5 vols. is the sacred text in the four languages (in the V, with the New Testament, there is Syriac); it is essentially the Complutensian Polyglot improved and completed. The last 3 vols. are new work. The VI has grammars and lexicons of Greek, Syriac (by A. Maes), Chaldean (by Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie), Hebrew (by S. Pagnini). The VII has the critical apparatus: a version (a reworking of that of S. Pagnini) of the Hebrew Old Testament, a critical edition of the Greek New Testament with the Vulgate and a new version by A., all works that were often reprinted separately. The VIII comprises A.'s treatise on the Hebrew idioms of the Old Testament and nine of his historical-archaeological treatises on the Old Testament (published separately: Antiquatorum iudaisorum II, IX, Leiden 1593, and among the Critici sacri, London 1660), which earned him the title of «Father of biblical archaeology».
The work, most learned, aroused distrust at Rome because of A.'s excessive dependence on Talmudic and rabbinic influences: moreover, to some cardinals the authority of the Vulgate seemed threatened. Having gone to Rome, A. obtained from Gregory XIII a brief of privilege (23 Aug. 1572). He was asked to remain in Rome, but had to return to Antwerp by order of the king. He reappeared in Rome in 1575 to defend himself against the accusations (Judaizing and heretical tendencies) presented by León de Castro before the Inquisition of Spain; A. was acquitted, but the learned Jesuit Mariana in his verdict as censor (1579), while recognizing his orthodoxy, denied the scientific value of the Polyglot.
A much-consulted chaplain and counsellor of Philip II, to whom he wrote freely from Antwerp (where he lived from 1568 to 1576), he directed the religious policy of Flanders. Under A.'s guidance the severe Index expurgatorius was drawn up, promulgated by the duke of Alba (1571). He directed the editions of the Breviary and the Missal for Spain (Antwerp, Plantin, 1569-71). In 1576 he had himself recalled to Spain and settled at the Escorial as librarian. With a secret mission (1578) he prepared the annexation of Portugal to Spain (1580). He then returned, refusing the episcopate offered him by the king, to his hermitage of Peña. He took part, much honoured, in the Council of Toledo (1582-83), which promulgated the Council of Trent. From 1584, renouncing the royal chaplaincy, he lived among his confreres of Santiago.
More philologist and critic than theologian, A., thoroughly versed in the Semitic languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic), classical and modern, concerned himself only with the literal sense, intending thereby to do apologetic work against the Protestants. Of his project of a commentary on the entire Bible, he was able to complete only the New Testament and a few books of the Old (at Plantin's, Antwerp): 12 Minor Prophets (1571), Gospels and Acts (1575), Epistles of the Apostles and Apoc. (1588), Ios. (1583), Iude. (1592), Is. (1599), the first 31 psalms of David (1605). Of the longed-for Opus Magnum of biblical synthesis he published only: Liber generationis et regenerationis Adam (1593), on biblical theology, and Naturae historia prima (1601), on the sciences in the Bible. He was the first to translate from Hebrew into Latin (1575) the itinerary (Mas-sd'óth) from Spain to Bagdad (between 1159 and 1173), passing through Palestine, of Benjamin of Tudela.
A.'s scientific activity must not make one forget his fine ascetic manual inspired by the life of Christ and the apostles (Dictatum christianum sive communes et aptas discipularum Christi omnium partes, Antwerp 1575), nor his numerous Latin poems and hymns (already in 1552 A. was solemnly crowned poet at Alcalá), almost all on religious subjects, which reveal the humanist aim, among them Humanæ salutis monumenta (Antwerp 1571), Hymni et saecula (iv. 1593) his masterpiece. His production in Castilian was limited; but his Parafrasis sobre el Cantar de los Cantares has been compared to the analogous poem of St. John of the Cross.
In his honour the Spanish government founded in Madrid in 1940 the Instituto A. M. de Estudios Hebrdicos y Oriente Próximo.
Bibliography14 works
Antonino Romeo