HEPBURN, James. — Minim theologian, philologist, and Scottish polyglot, born at Odhamstocks in the county of Haddington on 14 July 1573, died in Venice in 1621. Son of a Protestant minister, he converted to Catholicism at the University of St Andrews, where he was refining his cultural formation, with particular attention to Oriental languages. He visited Italy, France, Turkey, Persia, Syria, and other Eastern countries. Upon his return to Europe he professed the Rule of the Minims at Avignon, taking the name Bonaventura; he then went to Rome at the convent of the Trinity on the Pincio. Knowing more than seventy languages, Paul V appointed him librarian of the Vatican for Oriental manuscripts, a post he held for six years. In 1620 he went to Venice to translate Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldean writings.
He wrote thirty works, of which the following were published: Alphabellum: arabicum et exercitatio lectionis an arabic grammar (Rome 1591); Dizionario ebraico-caldacio (ibid. 1591); Virgo aurea septuaginta duobus encomiis coelata (ibid. 1616, dedicated to Paul V); the same with the title Encomium B. M. V. etc. (ibid. 1617) with the addition of alphabets of many little-known languages; Lexicon S. Linguae succinctum, Hebrew vocabulary (n.p., perhaps Rome 1600 [?]), a copy of which is found in the Vatican Library. Among his manuscripts are a Commentarius in Cantica Canticorum and other Hebrew, Chaldean, and Arabic translations. Many volumes from his rich library passed to that of the Trinity of Monte Pincio in Rome.