TORRES Y AMAT, FÉLIX. - Bishop of Astorga, b. at Sallent (diocese of Vich) on 6 Aug. 1772, d. at Madrid on 29 Dec. 1847.
A professor in the seminary of Tarragona, then a canon of the Collegiate Church of the Real Sitio de S. Ildefonso, in 1815 sacristan of the cathedral of Barcelona, he moved after some years to Madrid to attend to his publications. Elected bishop of Astorga in 1833, he took part in political life, accused of "scrollismo" toward the government (cf. Index of Prohibited Books, s. v.).
T. y A. is known principally for the Spanish translation of the Bible, made from the Vulgate but in the light of the original texts: La Sagrada Biblia, nuevamente, traducida de la Vulgata latina al español, aclarado el sentido de algunos lugares con la luz que dan los textos originales hebreo y griego (9 vols., Madrid 1823-25; 2nd ed. 6 vols., ibid. 1832-35). After that of the celebrated Piarist Scio de S. Miguel, this is the second Spanish version made by Catholics. Commendable for fidelity to the text, elegance of style, concision and clarity of the notes, it enjoyed great success, and is still in use as the most popular, disseminated by the Apostolado de la prensa of Madrid. However, in 1895 the Jesuit C. Sommervogel and more extensively, in 1936, the Jesuit José M. March (v. op. cit. in bibl.), have demonstrated that this version (with introduction and notes partly taken from Antonio Martini [v.]) is the work of the Jesuit José Miguel Petisco (1724-1800), a distinguished professor of Sacred Scripture at Valladolid, whose manuscript had been, after his death, sent to King Charles IV for revision and printing. T. y A., having obtained it through his uncle the bishop, Felix Amat, confessor of the King, would only have arranged and published it. Therefore the new editions now bear the names of the two authors, with precedence given to Fr. Petisco. In the edition of 1950 their version of the Psalter was replaced with that of the Jesuit Valentino M. Sanchez Ruiz, based on the new Latin translation promulgated by Pius XII (24 March 1945).
The other principal works of T. y A. are: La vida de Félix Amat, arzobispo de Palmyre (Madrid 1835); Memorias para ayudar á formar un Diccionario crítico de los escritores catalanes (Barcelona 1836), the fruit of patient research, carried out by his brother Ignacio T. y A., librarian of the Episcopal Library of Barcelona.
Bibliography7 works
Igino Cecchetti