SISTO di SIENA. — Biblical scholar, born in Siena in 1520 to Jewish parents, died in Genoa in 1569. As a young man S. converted and entered the Franciscan Order. Accused of heresy or of relapse into Judaism, he was condemned to the stake; but, persuaded by Cardinal Ghisleri, he recanted and was pardoned by Julius III. He then entered the Dominican Order and enjoyed the confidence of St. Pius V (Ghisleri), who entrusted him with various tasks concerning the Inquisition. In particular, S. carried out his activity in Cremona, supervising Jewish publications. There he saved quite a few manuscripts and books in that language. S. carried out
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SEVILLE, ARCHDIOCESE of — The bell tower of the Cathedral, called La Giralda (12th century).
(in ll. V–VI), the criticisms, together with their refutation, directed against the sacred writings (ll. VII–VIII). In this work the division of the biblical books into “protocanonical” and “deuterocanonical” (and “apocryphal”) appears for the first time.
S. speaks of various other writings of his that have not survived to the present day: a book De usu concordanturum S. Bibliae; four books on biblical texts of an astronomical, geographical, and scientific character (Astronomicarum, geographicarum, physicarum quaestionum), or on more disputed subjects (In varios Divisione Scripturae locos problematicarum epistolarum liber); a concordance or harmony of the four sapiential books (Proverbí, Ecclesiasté, Sapienza, and Ecclesiastica); commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans and on various Gospel passages, as well as on the first six chapters of Genesis and of Job, and on Ps. 1 and 51 (cf. Bibliotheca sancta [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 475).