Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi
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Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (October 25, 1742 in
Castelnuovo Nigra Castelnuovo Nigra is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about north of Turin. It is formed by the union of two villages: Sale Castelnuovo and Villa Castelnuovo Castelnuovo Nigra i ...
,
Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...
– March 23, 1831 in
Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
) was an Italian
Christian Hebraist A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians (and Tanakh to Jews), but C ...
. He studied in
Ivrea Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it stradd ...
and
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
. In October 1769, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the
University of Parma The University of Parma ( it, Università degli Studi di Parma, UNIPR) is a public university in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is organised in nine departments. As of 2016 the University of Parma has about 26,000 students. History During the ...
, where he spent the rest of his life. His inaugural lecture on the causes of the neglect of Hebrew study was published in 1769 at Turin.


Scholarly writings

De Rossi devoted himself to three chief lines of investigation—-typographical, bibliographical, and text-critical. Influenced by the example of
Benjamin Kennicott Benjamin Kennicott (4 April 171818 September 1783) was an English churchman and Hebrew scholar. Life Kennicott was born at Totnes, Devon where he attended Totnes Grammar School. He succeeded his father as master of a charity school, but the gene ...
, he determined on the collection of the variant readings of the
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
, and for that purpose collected a large number of manuscripts and old editions. In order to determine their bibliographical position he undertook a critical study of the annals of Hebrew typography, beginning with a special preliminary disquisition in 1776, and dealing with the presses of
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(Parma, 1780),
Sabbionetta Sabbioneta ( egl, label= Casalasco-Viadanese, Subiunèda) is a town and in the province of Mantua, Lombardy region, Northern Italy. It is situated about north of Parma, not far from the northern bank of the Po River. It was inscribed in the World ...
(Erlangen, 1783), and, later,
Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...
(Parma, 1808), as preparatory to his two great works, ''Annales Hebræo-Typographici'' (Parma, 1795, sec. xv.) and ''Annales Hebræo-Typographici ab 1501 ad 1540'' (Parma, 1799). This formed the foundation of his serious study of the early history of Hebrew printing; see
Incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
. In connection with this work he drew up a ''Dizionario Storico degli Autori Ebrei e delle loro Opere'' (Parma, 1802; German translation by Hamberger, Leipzig, 1839), in which he summed up in alphabetical order the bibliographical notices contained in
Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
, and, among other things, fixed the year of
Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
's birth; he also published a catalogue of his own manuscripts (1803) and books (1812). All these studies were in a measure preparatory and subsidiary to his ''Variæ Lectiones Veteris Testamenti'' (Parma, 1784–88), still the most complete collection of variants of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In order to compile it he visited all the chief libraries of
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, and through its compilation he obtained the knighthood of
St. George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
at the court of Parma and seductive offers from
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,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. As examples of the use of his work he issued a specimen of the
Targum A targum ( arc, תרגום 'interpretation, translation, version') was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ''Tanakh'') that a professional translator ( ''mǝturgǝmān'') would give in the common language of the ...
on ''
Esther Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...
'' (Rome, 1782; 2d ed., revised, Tübingen, 1783). He was also interested in the polemics of
Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
and
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, and wrote on this subject his ''Della Vana Aspettazione degli Ebrei del loro Re Messia'' (Parma, 1773), which he defended in a pamphlet two years later; he further published a list of anti-Christian writers, ''Bibliotheca Judaica Antichristiana'' (Parma, 1800). A select Hebrew lexicon, in which he utilized Parḥon's work (Parma, 1805), and an introduction to Hebrew (ib. 1815) conclude the list of those of his works which are of special Jewish interest. Rossi died in Parma in 1831.


Works

* ''De praecipuis caussis, et momentis neglectae a nonnullis Hebraicarum litterarum disciplinae disquisitio elenchtica'', Augustae Taurinorum : ex Tipographia Regia, 1769
on-line
* ''Della vana aspettazione degli ebrei del loro re Messia dal compimento di tutte le epoche trattato del teol. Giambern. De-Rossi'', Parma : dalla Stamperia reale, 1773; Roma : Marini e Co., 1840
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* ''Epithalamia exoticis linguis reddita'', Parmae : ex regio typographeo, 1775 * ''De hebraicae typographiae originae ac primitiis, seu antiquis ac rarissimis hebraicorum librorum editionibus saeculi 15. disquisitio historico-critica'', Parmae : ex Regio typographeo, 1776
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* ''Specimen variarum lectionum sacri textus et chaldaica estheris additamenta cum Latina versione ac notis ex singulari codice privatae bibliothecae Pii VI P. O. M. edidit variisque dissertationibus illustravit Iohannes Bernardus De Rossi, Accedit eiusdem auctoris appendix de celeberr. codice tritaplo samaritano bibliothecae Barberinae'', Romae : sumptibus Venantii Monaldini Bibliopolae, 1782
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* ''Io. Bernhard De Rossi, Annales typographiae ebraicae Sabionetenses appendice aucti. Ex Italicis Latinos fecit m. Io. Frid. Roos, collega'', Erlangae : sumtibus Io. Iac. Palm., 1783
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* ''Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti ex immensa mss. editorumq. codicum congerie haustae et ad Samar. textum, ad vetustiss. versiones, ad accuratiores sacrae criticae fontes ac leges examinatae opera ac studio Johannis Bern. De-Rossi. Prolegomena, clavis codicum, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus'', Parmae : ex regio typographeo, 1784
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* ''Annales Hebraeo-typographici sec. 15. descripsit fusoque commentario illustravit Joh. Bernardus De-Rossi'', Parmae : ex Regio Typographeo, 1795
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* ''Joh. Bernardi De-Rossi Scholia critica in V. T. libros seu Supplementa ad varias sacri textus lectiones'', Parmae : ex regio typographeo, 1798
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* ''Annales hebraeo-typographici ab an. MDI ad MDXL digessit notisque hist.-criticis instruxit Joh. Bernardus De-Rossi'', Parmae : ex Regio tipographeo, 1799
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* ''Dizionario storico degli autori ebrei e delle loro opere'', Parma : dalla Stamperia Imperiale, 1802
Volume I, on-line
e
Volume II, on-line
* ''Dizionario storico degli autori arabi più celebri e delle principali loro opere'', Parma : dalla Stamperia Imperiale, 1808
on-line
* ''Mss. codices Hebraici biblioth. I. B. De-Rossi ling. Orient. prof. accurate ab eodem descripti et illustrati. Accedit appendix qua continentur mss. codices reliqui al. linguarum'', Parma : dalla Stamperia Imperiale, 1803
Volume I, on-line

Volume II, on-line

Volume III, on-line
* ''Annali ebreo-tipografici di Cremona distesi dal dottore G. Bernardo De Rossi prof. di lingue orientali'', Parma : dalla Stamperia Imperiale, 1808
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* ''Il libro di Giobbe tradotto dal testo originale dal dottore G. Bernardo De-Rossi'', Parma : dalla Stamperia reale, 1812
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* ''Introduzione allo studio della lingua ebrea, dell'importanza di questo studio, e della maniera di ben instituirlo, del cavaliere G. Bernardo De-Rossi preside della facoltà di teologia e professore di lingue orientali'', Parma : dalla stamperia Blanchon, 1815
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* ''Introduzione alla Sacra Scrittura che comprende le prenozioni più importanti relative ai testi originali e alle loro versioni del professore G. Bernardo De-Rossi preside della facoltà teologica'', Parma : dalla stamperia ducale, 1817
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* ''Sinopsi della ermeneutica sacra o dell'arte di ben interpretare la Sacra Scrittura del professore G. Bernardo De-Rossi preside della facoltà teologica e riformatore nel magistrato supremo dell'università'', Parma : dalla stamperia ducale, 1819
on-line


References

* F. Parente, «DE ROSSI, Giovanni Bernardo». In: ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Roma : Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Vol. XXXIX, 1991
on-line
* ;Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography *''
Nuova Enciclopedia Italiana The ''Nuova Enciclopedia Italiana'' (1875-1888) was a general knowledge, illustrated, Italian-language encyclopedia edited by economist and published in Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cul ...
'' * Steinschneider, Moritz, ''Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana'', ''s.v.''


External links


Digitized works by Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi
at the
Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo De 1742 births 1831 deaths People from Castelnuovo Nigra University of Turin alumni Academic staff of the University of Parma Christian Hebraists Italian Hebraists