Ecchellensis, Abraham

, a learned Maronite of the seventeenth century, was professor of Syriac and Arabic in the royal college at Paris, to which city he had been invited from Rome by M. le Jay, that he might supply the place of Gabriel Sionita, another Maronite, whom he had employed in his edition of the Polyglot Bible. Gabriel Sionita complained to the parliament, abused his countryman, and involved him in difficulties, which made much noise. The abilities of Ecchellensis were also attacked by M. de Flavigny, a learned doctor of the house and society of the Sorbonne, and they wrote with much unbecoming warmth against each other. There is, however, no doubt but that Ecchellensis was well acquainted with the Arabic and Syriac languages. The congregation de propaganda JFidti associated him, 1636, with those whom they employed to translate the Bible into Arabic; and, recalling him from Paris, appointed him professor of Oriental languages at Rome. It was at that time that the grand duke, Ferdinand II. engaged Ecchellensis to translate the 5th, 6th, and 7th books of the Conies of Apollonius from Arabic into Latin, in which he was assisted by the celebrated John Alphonso Borelli, who added commentaries to them. The whole is printed with Archimedes “De Assumptis,” Florence, 1661, fol. Abraham Ecchellensis died at Rome, 1664, leaving many other works, in which he combines the | sentiments of the Orientals with those of the church of Rome against the Protestants “Euthychius vindicatus,” against Selden and Hottinger, Rome, 1661, 4to “Remarks on the Catalogue of Chaldee Writers composed by Ebed-jesu, and published at Rome,” 1653; “Chronicoa Orientale,” printed at the Louvre, 1651, fol. which is joined to the Byzantine; “Institutio* ling. Syriacae,” Rome, 1628, 12mo; “Synopsis Philosophise Orientalium,” Paris, 1641, 4to; “Versio Durrhamani de medicis virtutibus Animaiium, Plantarum, et Gemmarum,”' Paris, 1647, 8vo. ¹