FRANCESCO SAVERIO PATRIZI. — Distinguished exegete, born in Rome on 19 June 1797, from a distinguished Sienese family, died there on 23 April 1881. He entered the Society of Jesus on 12 November 1814. He was professor of Hebrew language and Sacred Scripture at the Collegio Romano and at Louvain.
He contributed to biblical introduction studies and was among the first to publish a Synopsis of the Gospels (I, II of De Evangelii) in Greek and Latin. Regarding the New Testament, he excluded the existence of types in it, distinguished Mark from John Mark, and assigned the composition of Mark to the years 42–44. The De Evangelii still serves a useful purpose today, especially for historical and chronological questions. In the exegesis of the Old Testament, P. maintained (1853) in the Protoevangelium the mariological sense and the Immaculate Conception; his contribution to the literal exegesis of the Psalms was excellent.
Among his major works: Instituto de interpretatione Biblicorum (Rome 1862, 1876); Biblicarum quaestionum decas (ibid. 1877): these two works reproduce, improved with additions respectively, the II, I and II De interpretatione Scripturarum Sacrarum (I, Διδακτικός, Rome 1844; II, Παραδειγματικός, ibid. 1844), which in turn reproduce De Sacrarum Scripturarum sensibus (1838 and 1840) and Selectarum questionum de Vetere Testamento, fasciculus I (1841), both only in polygraph editions. Also: De Evangelii libri tres (Freiburg in Br. 1852–53 [the I, II part, with the title Evangelium διὰ τεσσαράνου σου Quattuor Evangeliorum contextus, ibid. 1852]); some dissertations printed separately, including Della descrizione universale mentovata da s. Luca (Rome 1876), in which he modifies the opinion expressed in the book. Notable also: De consensu utriusque libri Ma
