Arias, Benedictus

ARIAS, ɑ̄´´ri´ɑs, BENEDICTUS (Called Montanus): Spanish scholar; b. probably at Fregenal de la Sierra (215 m. s. w. of Madrid), Estremadura, Spain, Nov. 12, 1527; d. at Seville July 6, 1598. He studied in Seville and Alcala and became especially proficient in languages; became a priest of the knightly order of St. Iago and accompanied Bishop Martin Perez Ajala of Segovia to the Council of Trent. King Philip II. called him from a life of scholastic retirement at Aracena near Seville and sent him to Belgium in 1568 to superintend the preparation of the Antwerp Polyglot (see Bibles, Polyglot, II.), and when the work was completed (1572) he went to Rome to present it to the pope. On his return to Spain the king rewarded him with a pension and several remunerative appointments, such as court chaplain and librarian at the Escorial. He was blamed for preferring the Hebrew text to the Vulgate and for introducing the Targums into the Polyglot. The Jesuits, to whom he was opposed, were particularly active with charges against him, but he succeeded in clearing himself at Rome. Besides the Apparatus to the Antwerp Polyglot (containing dissertations De Hebraicis idiotismis, De arcano sermone, etc.), he wrote commentaries on many of the books of the Bible, Antiquitatum Judaicarum libri ix. (Leyden, 1593), Liber generationis et regenerationis Adam (Antwerp, 1593), translated into Latin Benjamin of Tudela’s travels (1575), and wrote Latin poems.

Bibliography: Memorias de la real academia de la historia, vii. 1-199, Madrid, 1832.