Azariah De'Rossi’s Observations on the Syriac New Testament: A Sixteenth-century Jew’s Critique of the Vulgate

Shortly before his death in 1577, the Mantuan Jewish scholar Azariah de’ Rossi wrote a challenging and provocative treatise in Italian. Addressing a Christian readership at a time when the authenticity and authority of the Vulgate had been called into question, de’ Rossi presented critical readings of specific verses and phrases in the New Testament, particularly the Aramaisms, clarifying and emending the Vulgate on the basis of the ancient Syriac version which had recently been printed (Vienna, 1555). Few Western scholars had any familiarity with Syriac; this learned Jew’s contribution to New Testament studies thus appears all the more remarkable. De’ Rossi’s work was commissioned by Giacomo Boncompagni, the son of Pope Gregory XIII, and dedicated to the cardinal Santa Severina, Giulio Antonio Sanotoro.