Louis Maracci

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Ludovico Marracci

Louis (or Ludovico) Maracci (1612-1700), best known by name Lewis Maracci, was an Italian Oriental scholar and professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom at Rome.^[1][2][3][4]

He is chiefly known as the publisher and editor of Quran of Muhammad in Arabic. He is also well known for translating Quran in Latin, editing an Arabic Bible translation, and numerous other works. ^[1][2][3][5]

Biography

He was born at Lucca in 1612. He had become a member of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca and learnt with reputed success in the study of the Eastern languages, especially the Arabic. He was the Confessor of Pope Innocent XI. Pope appointed him as the professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom - Sapienza University of Rome (in Italian, sapienza means wisdom), for his proficiency in that language. He later declined the promotion of being appointed as Cardinal. He died at an age of 88 in 1700.^[1][2]

Contributions

He has considerable share in editing the Roman edition of Arabic Bible, published at Rome in 1671, in three volumes. For this, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples appointed Abraham Ecchellensis and Maracci Lewis to undertake the revision of the edition to make it exactly, correspond with the Vulgate. Maracci wrote a new preface and made a list of errors of the former copy in 1668.^[1][2][3][6]

He acquired much celebrity in editing and publishing Quran in Arabic and translating that into Latin - Alcorani Textus Universus Arabicè et Latinè, in two volumes, at Padua in 1698. His version of Quran included a life of Mahomet, with notes, and refutations of Mahometan doctrines.^[1][2][7] It was the result of forty years of labour and toilsome research of the Benedictine monks.^[4]

George Sale's English translations of the Quran - The Koran, commonly called, The Alcoran of Mohammed -, in 1736, was done based on Maracci's Latin version of Quran in 1698.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

He also authored The Life of Father Leonardi, the founder of his congregation - Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, and many more.^[1]

References

• 1. Aikin, John; Thomas Morgan; William Johnston; William Enfield; Mr. Nicholson (1807). biography:or, Lives, critical and historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order, Volume 6 (Google eBook). T.Davison, White-friars.
• 2. Gorton, John (1828). [A general biographical dictionary:containing a summary account of the lives of eminent persons of all nations, Volume 2,http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Jm89AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA416&lpg=PA416&dq=Maracci+Lewis&source=bl&ots=gFywvKV-eM&sig=Cc9QcifofxBGMt0BJF9nF4gK5tc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SYwxT82hPMXTrQfpjuGjBA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Maracci%20Lewis&f=false| Part 1 (Google eBook)]. Hunt & Clarke.
• 3. Thomas Joseph Pettigrew; Augustus Frederick (Duke of Sussex) (1839). Bibliotheca Sussexiana:. Longman & co.
• 4. Mills, Charles (1818). On history on Muhammedanism. Kingsbury.
• 5. Hyamson, Albert M. (1995). A Dictionary of Universal Biography:. Genealogical Publishing Com.
• 6. The Methodist Review, Volume 5; Volume 16. B. Waugh and T.Mason. 1834. Retrieved February 8, 2012. An edition of Arabic Bible - superintended by Abram Ecchellensis and Lewis Maracci
• 7. Lodovico, Marracci; Muhammad (1698). Alcorani Textus Universus. Typographia Seminarii. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
• 8. George Sales translation(1743)
• 9. One of the first English translations of the Qur'án was done by George Sale in 1734 using Maracci's Latin work
• 10. George Sale (1697-1736) was much influenced by Ludovico Maracci’s edition in arabic and latin printed in Padua in 1698
• 11. Sale, George (1821). The Koran:commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Scarcherd an Letterman.
• 12. Thomas Jefferson purchased a copy of the Qur'an, specifically, George Sale's English translation, The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed

External links

• The Quran in East and West: Manuscripts and Printed Books
• Alcorani Textus Universus
• SALE’S PREFACE TO THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE AND TRANSLATION. - Mohammed, The Quran, vol. 1 - 1896 - Father Lewis Marracci, who had been confessor to Pope InnocentXI
• Ludovico Maracci
• The history of Arabia - by Andrew Crichton - p.277-278