PAULIN MARTIN. - Orientalist and biblical scholar, born at Lecam (Lot, France) on 20 July 1840, died at Amélies-les-Bains (Pyrénées-Orientales) on 14 January 1890. He studied theology in Paris (St Sulpice), where he was a pupil of Le Hir (q.v.), and later in Rome, where he also cultivated canon law and Oriental languages. From October 1878 until his early death he taught Sacred Scripture and Oriental languages at the Catholic Institute in Paris. His considerable output deals mainly with the Syriac language and textual criticism of the New Testament.
Besides numerous articles, the following works deserve mention: *Oeuvres grammaticales d'Aboul'Faradj, dit Bar-Hebraeus* (2 vols., Paris 1872); *Histoire de la ponctuation et de la massore chez les Syriens* (ibid. 1875); *Introduction à la critique général de l'Anc. Test.* (3 vols., ibid. 1887–98); *Introduction à la critique textuelle du Nouveau Test. I. Partie théorique*; *Partie pratique* (7 vols. in lithography reproducing his lectures at the Catholic Institute from 1882 to 1886).