GIAMBATTISTA ELIANO (ROMANO). — A contemporary Jew, born in Rome in 1530 and died there on March 3, 1589. Having converted in Venice, he became a Jesuit in September 1531. 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, which was later published in 1671. E. rendered distinguished service through his papal missions to the Copts (1561–62), to the Maronites (1578–82), and again to the Copts (1582–85). He was later appointed penitentiary of St. Peter.
Bibl.: A. Vaccari, Una Bibbia araba per il primo questa
evento al Libano, in Mélanges de l'Univ. de Beyrouth, 10 (1925),
pp. 104; V. Buri, L'unione della Chiesa copta con Roma (Orientalia
Italica Christiana, 32, n.), Rome 1931; J. C. Sola, El. p. Juan B. E.,
un documento autobiografico inedito, in Archivum hist. Soc., Istan-
bul (1935), pp. 291–321; G. Castellani, La missione pontificia presso
i copti sotto Gregorio XIII, in Civ. Catt., 1948, IV, pp. 59–68.