GIUSTINIANI, AGOSTINO. - Orientalist and Dominican bishop, b. in Genoa to a patrician family in 1470, d. in a shipwreck in the Ligurian Sea in 1536.
He became a religious (1487) and made his profession in the convent of S. Apollinare in Pavia, while remaining affiliated with S. Maria di Castello in Genoa. After 18 years of teaching, concluded by a two-year period as a “sententiary” bachelor at Bologna, he was created bishop of Nebbio in Corsica at the beginning of Sept. 1514. He took part in the last two sessions of the Fifth Lateran Council (1516–17). Because of his expertise in Eastern languages, he was then summoned by Francesco I of France to establish the chair of Hebrew at the University of Paris, which he held for almost five years. He was a friend of Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Tommaso Moro, etc. G. had proposed to publish a polyglot Bible, enriched with scholia and commentaries. But he was able to publish only a very small part of II. Mention is made of the Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum et Chaldaicum cum tribus latinis interpretationibus et glossis (at P. P. Porus, Genoa 1516). It was the first work of this kind published in Europe. In it, commenting on Ps. 18, 5, G. included COLOMBA (v.).