Domenico, Germano, of Silesia

DOMENICO, GERMANO, OF SILESIA. - Franciscan Arabist, b. in 1588 at Schurgast (Silesia), d. on 28 Sept. 1670 at the Escorial.

He entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1624. He studied the Arabic language at the college of St. Peter in Montorio in Rome, under Fr. Tommaso Obicini of Novara; he then perfected his knowledge by staying in Palestine. From 1636 he was a lecturer in Arabic at the aforementioned college and collaborated on the edition of the Arabic Bible, published in 1671 by the Congregation of Propaganda. In 1640 he returned to Palestine and in 1645 he was appointed prefect of the mission of Samarkand in Tartary. In 1652 he was again in Rome, whence he went to Spain and resided in the convent of St. Lawrence of the Escorial, with the Hieronymites; there, by order of King Philip IV, he translated and refuted the Koran and taught Arabic to some monks. He wrote an Arabic grammar, entitled Fabrico ovvero Dizionario della lingua volgare arabica et italiana (Rome 1636); Antitheses fidei (ibid. 1638); Fabrico linguae Arabicae (ibid. 1639), a large Arabic-Latin-Italian dictionary. Other unpublished works of his are preserved in manuscript in the library of the Escorial; the most important are: Annotationes de Deo uno et reino; Veni mecum ad Christianes orientales; Logica Solana et lingua Arabica in Latinam translata; Interpretatio Alcorani.

This last work is the most important of D. and is the best-executed version and refutation of the Koran accomplished up to that time. The grammar and the dictionary are of lesser value; the latter nevertheless was in use, for lack of anything else, in Italy and especially in the Holy Land until the middle of the 19th century.

Arduino Kleinhaus