DE ROSSI, GIAN BERNARDO. - The greatest Hebraist of Christian Italy, b. 25 Oct. 1742 at Villa Castelnuovo (diocese of Ivrea), d. at Parma on 24 March 1831. A versatile and precocious intellect, in his youth he cultivated letters and languages, philosophy and history, music and mathematics, drawing and sculpture. But having then entered the sacred orders, a priest in 1766, he devoted himself entirely to the Bible, especially to the Old Testament, and to the Hebrew language and its kindred tongues. Having soon acquired great fame, in 1769 he was called to the chair of Oriental languages at the University of Parma, where he moved and spent the rest of his long life, wholly dedicated to his studies and hardly shaken by the succession of governments and political upheavals in those turbulent times. He was in correspondence with the learned men of all Europe and with assiduous care and expense collected a very rich library of Hebrew manuscripts and incunabula, which is still preserved under his name in the Government Library of Parma.
He published, between large and small works, over 50 volumes; even more he left unpublished or barely sketched out. Among the printed works the principal ones are: De praecipuis consis 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 hebraeotypographici saec. XV (ibid. 1795); 4 vols., with a fifth of Scholia critica in V. T. libros seu Supplementa in variae lectiones (ibid. 1798), a fundamental work, a mine still today exploited by scholars; Dizionario storico degli autori ebrei e delle loro opere (2 vols., ibid. 1802); Mas. codice 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).
Alberto Vaccari