CIANTÈS, GIUSEPPE-MARIA. — Domestic prelate, Hebraist, and theologian, born in Rome in 1620, died there on 24 February 1670. He belonged to the convent of S. Maria sopra Minerva. On account of his knowledge of Hebrew, he was entrusted by the Pope with the instruction of the Jews of Rome (1626). He devoted himself to this task with zeal and success for fourteen years, earning in March 1640 promotion to the episcopal see of Marsico (Potenza), a suffragan see of Salerno. After giving life to his diocese with the most zealous governance, in January 1656 he resigned and returned to the Jews of Rome.
Among the various writings he published, the following are noteworthy: two discourses with the Jews, *De S.ma Trinitate*... (Rome 1667) and *De s.mac Christi Incarnatione*... (ibid. 1668); the Hebrew translation of the first three books of the *Summa contra Gentiles* of St. Thomas Aquinas (ibid. 1657); and a treatise *Della perfezione dovuta allo stato del vescovo*... (ibid. 1669).