Gabriel Sionita

, a learned Maronite, who died in 1648, was professor of oriental languages at Rome, from whence he was invited to Paris, to assist in M. le Jay’s Polyglott, and carried with him some Syriac and Arabic bibles, which he had transcribed with his own hand from ms copies at Rome; these bibles were first printed in Jay’s Polyglott, with vowel points, and a Latin version and afterwards in the English Polyglott. Gabriel Sionita translated also the Arabian Geography, entitled “Geographia Nubiensis,” 1619, 4to, and some other works. He had some disagreement with M. le Jay, who sent to Rome for Abraham Ecchellensis to supply his place. ³