Paul Di Burgos

PAOLO di BURGOS. - Dominican exegete, b. at Burgos c. 1353, d. there 29 Aug. 1435. Son of a wealthy Jew, through conscientious study of Holy Scripture and the Summa theologica of St. Thomas he came to Christianity. At Baptism he took the name Paolo di S. Maria. After the death of his wife, he embraced the ecclesiastical state and was tutor to Giovanni II, king of Castile, chancellor of the Kingdom of León and Castile, bishop of Cartagena (1405), and then of Burgos (1415). Before his conversion he had three sons, of whom Alfonso succeeded him in the see of Burgos and Consalvo became bishop of Plasencia.

Well acquainted with Jewish life and customs, he commented on Holy Scripture for apologetic purposes. He wrote: Additiones (1429–31) to the postils of Niccolò di Lyra on the whole of Holy Scripture; a treatise against the Jews: Dialogus qui vocatur scrutinium Scripturorum libris duobus contra perfidiam Judaeorum (Mantova 1475, Magonza 1478, Burgos 1591, with a brief biography); 12 questions De nomine Tetragrammaton (ed. with notes by I. Drusius, Graneker 1604, and in H. Reland, Decas exercitationum philologicarum, Utrecht 1707).