Marco Marini Explained

Marco Marini (Brescia 154220 May 1594) was an Italian orientalist, and censor of Hebrew language publications for the Vatican. He prepared the first published edition of Targum Yerushalmi.^[1]

Biography

Marco Marini was born in Brescia of a wealthy and noble family. At a young age he entered the Canons Regular of the Congregation of S. Salvatore in San Giovanni of Brescia. He engaged in Oriental studies and studied Hebrew with Paolo Veneto, a converted Jew who was also a member of the same Congregation. He authored a commentary on Psalms and a Hebrew-Latin dictionary. Among other things, he was charged by the Index with the censorship of several Hebrew books, including Rosh Emuna of Abravanel, the commentary of Obadja Sforno, and Midrash Rabba.^[2] He died in Brescia in 1594.

Works

• ms61 – a translation into Hebrew of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark from the convent of the Canons Regular of San Salvatore at Candiana, where Marini was a canon in 1568.
• The first edition of Targum Yerushalmi.
• a Hebrew grammar entitled Book: Gan Eden. The Garden of Eden. 1580. Basel. Froben.
• a Hebrew dictionary entitled Book: Tebat Noah. Noah's Ark. 1593. Venice. Degara.

Notes and References

1. Carmignac 1978 "One of the canons in 1568 was that excellent Hebraist Marco Marini, who was born at Brescia in 1542 and died 1594"
2. Gustave. Sacerdote. Deux index expurgatoires de livres hebreux. Revue des Études Juives. 30. 1896. 264.