ELIANO (ROMANO), GIAMBATTISTA. - Jewish convert, b. in Rome in 1530 and d. there on 3 March 1589. Having converted in Venice, he became a Jesuit in September 1551. He taught Hebrew and Arabic at the Collegio Romano, translated the acts of the Council of Trent into Arabic, and prepared the Arabic edition of the Bible published later in 1671. E. rendered distinguished service through his pontifical missions among the Copts (1561–62), among the Maronites (1578–82), and again among the Copts (1582–85). He was then appointed penitentiary of St. Peter’s.
BIRL.: A. Vaccari, Una Bibbia araba per il primo gesuita venuto al Libano, in Mélanges de l'Union, de Bayreuth, 10 (1925), pp. 104; V. Buri, L'unione della Chiesa copia con Roma (Orientalia Christiana, 32, 11), Roma 1931; J. C. Sola, El p. Juan B. E., un documento autobiográfico inédito, in Archivosa hist. Soc. Jesu, 4 (1935), pp. 291-321; G. Castellani, La missione pontificia presso i copti sotto Gregorio XIII, in Civ. Catt., 1948, iv, pp. 59-68, 154-63. Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina