MAES (Masius), ANDREAS. - Belgian orientalist, b. in 1514 at Lennick-lez-Bruxelles, d. near Clèves in 1573. “Primus” of the Faculty of Arts at Louvain in 1533, having perfected himself in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, at Rome he learned Syriac and also (but apparently only slightly) Arabic (1547-48; 1551-52).
M. was the first European to compose a grammar and a lexicon of Syriac, reproduced by Arias Montano in the Antwerp Polyglot. He published in Latin translation two ancient Syriac texts; then a polemical work against the Calvinists, In Deut. c. XVI et seq. annotationes (J.-P. Migne, Cursus completus Scripturae S., 7-8),
and a De paradiso commentarius (Antwerp 1569). But his principal work is the commentary on Joshua (Josue imperatoris historia illustrata atque explicata, ibid. 1571), in which he employs his Orientalist and rabbinic learning; he includes various reflections on the reform of the Church which displeased many; in textual criticism, he does not intend blindly to follow the Masoretic text; in literary criticism, he raises doubts about the authenticity of the Book of Joshua; because of these progressive opinions M.’s work was condemned by the Lisbon Index in 1581 and prohibited “donee corrigatur” by Quiroga, then by Sixtus V and Clement VIII.