Louis Maracci

Louis (or Ludovico) Maracci (6 October 1612 – 5 February 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]

Ludovico Marracci

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 Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca and learnt with reputed success in the study of non-European languages, especially 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 to the rank of Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He died at an age of 88 in 1700.[1][2]

Contributions

He has considerable share in editing the Roman edition of the Arabic Bible, published in 1671 in three volumes. For this, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples appointed Abraham Ecchellensis and Lewis Maracci 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 Qurʻan in Arabic with his translation into Latin, Alcorani Textus Universus Arabicè et Latinè, in two volumes, at Padua in 1698. His version of the Qurʻan included a life of Muhammad, with notes, and refutations of Muslim doctrines.[1][2][7] It was the result of forty years of labour and toilsome research of the Benedictines.[4] He also published in 1691, in Latin, a refutation of the Quran titled Prodromus Ad Refutationem Alcoran[8].

George Sale's English translation of the Qurʻan, The Alcoran of Mohammed, in 1736, was done based on Maracci's 1698 Latin translation.[9][10][11][12][13]

He also authored The Life of Father Leonardi, the founder of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, and many more.[1]

In 2012, a collection of his manuscripts were discovered at the Order of Clerics Regular of the Mother of God in Rome. The collection consists of almost 10,000 pages. The manuscripts include his work material, notes and significant information on his approach to translating the Qurʻan, as well as different versions of his translation. Based on the study of these manuscripts, a new examination of his life, influence, and methods has been published.[14]

References
  1. Aikin, John; Thomas Morgan; William Johnston; William Enfield; Mr. Nicholson (1807). General 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, Part 1 (Google eBook). Hunt & Clarke.
  3. Thomas Joseph Pettigrew; Augustus Frederick (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. ISBN 9780806345468.
  6. The Methodist Review, Volume 5; Volume 16. B. Waugh and T.Mason. 1834. p. 261. 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. Lodovico, Marracci (1691). Prodromvs Ad Refvtationem Alcoran.
  9. George Sales translation(1743)
  10. One of the first English translations of the Qurʻan was done by George Sale in 1734 using Maracci's Latin work
  11. George Sale (1697-1736) was much influenced by Ludovico Maracci’s edition in Arabic and Latin printed in Padua in 1698
  12. Sale, George (1821). The Koran:commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Scarcherd an Letterman.
  13. "Thomas Jefferson purchased a copy of the Qurʻan, specifically, George Sale's English translation, The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-15. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  14. Glei, Reinhold F. and Roberto Tottoli Ludovico Marracci at work. 2016. The evolution of his Latin translation of the Qurʻan in the light of his newly discovered manuscripts. ISD Books.
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