DE ROSSI, Gian Bernardo. — The greatest Hebraist of Christian Italy, born on 25 Oct. 1742 at Villa Castelnuovo (diocese of Ivrea), died at Parma on 24 March 1831. A many-sided and precocious genius, in his youth he cultivated letters and languages, philosophy and history, music and mathematics, drawing and sculpture. But after entering the sacred orders and being ordained priest in 1766, he devoted himself entirely to the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and to the Hebrew language and its related disciplines. Soon acquiring great renown, in 1769 he was called to the chair of Oriental languages at the University of Parma, where he settled and spent the rest of his long life, wholly dedicated to his studies and undisturbed by the succession of governments and political upheavals in those stormy times. He corresponded with scholars throughout Europe and, with unremitting care and expense, amassed an exceptionally rich library of Hebrew manuscripts and incunabula, still preserved under his name in the Government Library of Parma.
He published, in large and small formats, more than fifty volumes; even more remain unpublished or only sketched. Among his printed works the principal ones are: *De praecipuis causis et momentis neglectae a nonnullis hebraicarum litterarum disciplinae* (Turin 1769); *Della vana aspettazione degli Ebrei del loro re Messia* (Parma 1773); *Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti ex immensa manu scriptorum editorumque codicum congerie haustae* (ibid. 1784–88); *Annales hebraeo-typographici saec. XV* (ibid. 1795); four volumes, with a fifth of *Scholia critica in V. T. libros seu Supplementa in varias lectiones* (ibid. 1798), a fundamental work still mined by scholars; *Dizionario storico degli autori ebrei e delle loro opere* (2 vols., ibid. 1802); *Mss. codices hebraici bibliothecae I. B. D.-R.* (3 vols., ibid. 1803–1808); *Memorie storiche sugli studi e sulle produzioni del dott. G. B. D.-R.* (ibid. 1809). Translations from the Hebrew text: *Salmi* (ibid. 1808), *Ecclesiast* (ibid. 1809), *Giobbe* (ibid. 1812), *Treni di Geremia* (ibid. 1813), *Proverbi* (ibid. 1815).