PAGNINI, SANTI (SANTE)
He was the first, after St. Jerome, to produce an integrated and executed translation of the Bible from the original texts. Born at Lucca on 18 Oct. 1470, he died at Lyons on 24 Aug. 1536. In 1487 he entered the Dominican habit at the convent of S. Domenico in Fiesole, soon devoting himself with ardour to the study of Oriental languages, encouraged by Savonarola.
Having mastered Hebrew, he worked tenaciously on a new translation of the Bible, which was published—though without commentaries—at Lyons in 1528. Although too literal, it was well received and repeatedly printed, even in the most celebrated polyglot Bibles, alongside the Hebrew text. In 1520, under the protection of Leo X, P. began in Rome—where he was teaching—the edition of a Psalterium tetraglotum, with commentaries by the Fathers and rabbis; this was interrupted for lack of funds at Psalm 28 (29): only two copies survive. Next came the Enchiridion Chaldaicum (Rome 1523), an exposition of Talmudic vocabulary. Moving to Lyons, he continued his scholarly activity, publishing there in 1525 a Greek grammar (Isagogae ad linguam Graecam capessendam); in 1526 a Hebrew grammar (Hebraicae institutiones), which met with greater success; in 1529 the weighty Hebrew dictionary (Thesaurus linguae sanctae), universally esteemed (noted is the admiration of W. Gesenius: Journal des savants, 1844, p. 609); and in 1536, on the eve of his death, a kind of biblical hermeneutics (Isagogae ad S. Literas et ad mysticos S. Script. sensus). Other works, including a commentary on the whole Bible, remained unpublished. P.’s reserved attitude toward the Vulgate was often exploited by Protestants, who, in reprinting his works, inserted their own errors and provoked their condemnation by the Church.