NICCOLÒ MALERMI (MALERBI, MANERBI). — Camaldolese, born c. 1422, died in Venice in 1481. He was abbot of S. Michele di Lemo, of S. Mattia, and of S. Michele di Murano in Venice.
He is famous for his edition of the Bible in the vernacular: *Bibbia dignamente vulgarizzata per il clarissimo religioso duon Nicolao de M. veneziano et diil Monasterio de S. Michele di Lemo abbatte dignissimo* (2 vols. in-fol. in 2 columns, Venice 1471, printed by Vendelino da Spira). It is extremely rare. The edition by N. Jenson, published two months later (known as the "ott." edition), reproduces Malerbi’s for the New Testament but diverges for the Old Testament. Malerbi used fourteenth-century manuscript versions, probably (certainly for the Acts) those of D. Cavalca (according to others, those of M. Passavanti), revising and rendering them more homogeneous, though often marring them from a literary standpoint. For the Solomonic books he drew on Nicholas of Lyra. His collaborator was the Florentine Girolamo Squarciafico. Up to 1567 more than 30 editions were produced. C. Negroni reprinted the work in 1882 in Bologna.
Malerbi also wrote: *Historia monasterii S. Matthiae et alia pura ad chronicon Ordinis pertinentia*, whose manuscript has been lost, and *Le vite di tutti li santi* with the aid of the Florentine G. Squarciafico (Venice 1475).