MAGRI (Latin: Macer, Macri), Domenico. - Theologian and exegete of the Oratory, b. at Valletta (Malta) on 28 March 1604, d. on 4 March 1672. He studied at Palermo, then at Rome, whence he was sent, at only 19 years of age, to the East to negotiate affairs of the Holy See with the Maronite patriarch. At Rome he was ordained a priest, then he occupied himself, on the commission of Card. Pallentito, with the translation of the Bible into Arabic. Under Innocent X he was promoted secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide; he was a consultor of the S. Congregation of the Index. Card. Francesco M. Brancaccio, bishop of Viterbo from 1654, esteemed and greatly protected him; he made him a canon of the cathedral of Viterbo, where M. was buried.
Very erudite, a connoisseur of the Semitic languages, M. published, besides a commentary on the hymns of the Breviary (Viterbo, under the anagram Nicodemo Grima) and the Breve racconto del viaggio al Monte Libano (Viterbo 1654, Rome 1655), two celebrated works: Ἀντίλογίαx seu contradicciones apparentes S. Scripturae (Venice 1645, 1653, Paris 1665; among the many editions, the best is the one enlarged by the theologian Jacques Lefèvre, archdeacon of Lisieux [1645-1716], Paris 1685); Notitia de' vocabolli ecclesiastici con la dichiarazione delle ceremonie, dell'origine dei riti sacri, voci barbare e frasi usate dai SS. Padri, concili e scrittori ecclesiastici (Messina 1644, Rome 1650, 2nd ed. 1669), a work based on the Bibliotheca sacra of Latino Latino of Viterbo (1513-93), rich in notions still useful today, which his brother Carlo, prefect of the Library of the Sapienza at Rome, transposed into Latin and enlarged, under the title Hierolexicon sive sacrum dictionarium (Rome 1677, Bremen 1692, Venice 1712 and 1765); the 6th ed. (2 vols., Bologna 1765-67), enriched by Stefano Sciugliaca, contains ca. 8000 entries. M. corrected and provided with indexes the Roman edition of the Martyrology (1688).