Olivetan, Pierre Robkrt, a leader in the French Reformation, and one of the first translators of the Bible into Frencli, was born at Noyon towards the end of the 15th century. We are told that it was he who, in ad- vising Calvin, his relative, to examine into the questions then controverted, introduced him to the cause of the Reformation. Saj's Merle D'Aubigne, "Olivetan seems to have been the first who so presented the doctrine of the Gospel as to draw the attention of Calvin" (comp. Maimbourg, Histoiie du Ctdvinisme, p. 53). Olivetan certainly was one of the first to spread the new religious doctrines in Geneva, where we find him in 1533. Once, hearing a preacher denounce Luther in the pulpit, Olivetan interrupted the speaker, and imdertook to re- fute him, thus creating a disturbance which nearly cost him his life, and led to his being banished from the ter- ritory of Geneva. He retired to Neufchatel, where he commenced his French translation of the Bible, probably at the suggestion of Farel. Olivetan, who was less thor- oughly acquainted with Hebrew than is asserted by Beza, and not verj' proficient in Greek, made great use of the translation of Lefevre d'Etaples, just published at Antwerp ; but he carefully compared that translation with the original texts, and interpreted some passages in a different manner. His French version appeared under the title of La Bible qui est toute la Sainte Ecri- ture (Neufchatel, 1535, 2 vols. fol.). This edition was published at the expense of the Waldensos, from a MS. said to have been written by Bonaventure des Terriers. A second edition, printed at Geneva, was corrected by Calvin, and thus Olivetan's labors became the foundation of the Genevan Bible. Olivetan, obliged to leave Switz- erland, went to Italy, and died at Ferrara in 1538. It was rumored that lie was poisoned at Rome during a short stay he made in that citj-. See Richard Simon, Hist. crit. du Vieux Testament, p. 342; Lallouette, Flist. des Traductions Franc, de VEcriture Sainte, ch. ii ; Sene- bier. Hist. Litter, de Geneve, i, 153; Haag, Iai France Protestante, s. v. ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 635; Merle D'Aubigne, Hist, of the Ref. iii, 365 sq. ; Brit. Qu. Rev. April, 1865, p. 420. (J. H. W.)
Olivetans. See Montolivetenses; Ptolojiei.
Oliveyra, Francisco Xavier de, a Portuguese nobleman, noted as an ecclesiastical writer, was born in Lisbon in the beginning of the 18th century, and began his studies under the celebrated father Pinto. For almost forty years he was a slave to the prejudices of popery ; but extensive reading, joined to his observations in Protestant countries, illuminated his mind, and dispelled by degrees the clouds with which superstition had ob- scured his intellect. When he had determined to change his religion, he quit his patrimonial estates, and, re- linquishing all honors, sought refuge first in Holland, and afterwards in England, where- he spent the remain-
der of his life in retirement. He employed his time in literary labors. He published. Memoirs of his Trav- els:— Familiar L.etters : — A Pathetic IJiscoiase to his Countrymen on the Earthquake at Lisbon in 1756 : — The Chevalier d'Oliveyra burned in Effigy as an Heretic, why and wherefore ? etc. ; and he left besides a great number of MSS., including Oliveyriana, or Memoms, Historical and Literary {;I7 vols. 4to). When the over- throw of Lisbon occurred, he distinguished himself by a judicious and effective address to his former fellow- citizens. It was reprinted several times, and a second part added, and the whole translated into English. He died at Hackney Oct. 18, 1783. (J. H. W.)
Oliveyra, Salomon de, ben-David, a distin- guished Hebrew poet and grammarian, and chief rabbi of the Portuguese Jews at xVmsterdam, was born about 1640. He was a master in Hebrew, and wrote syna- gogical poetry when very j'oung. He first succeeded Moses Raphael de Aguilar as teacher in the Kether Thora (nim ^.rD), and was elected in 1674 to the dignity of chacham in the institution called Gemiluth Chassadim, where he delivered expositions on the Pen- tateuch between 1074 and 1678, and on the historic and poetic books between 1678 and 1682. In 1693 he suc- ceeded Aboab as president of the Rabbinic college, and died in May, 1708. He wrote, C^^nx nb;^X, the Lovely Hind, a moral pliilosophical work on Hebrew rhetoric (Amsterdam, 1665): — D'^rSiy bl, the Door of Lips, a Chaldee grammar, with the title '• Gram- matica da lengoa Chaldaica" (ibid. 1682) :— Drb ^3"}"^, a methodology and logic of the Talmud (ibid. 1688): — *i"^ '^3"i'!J) an alphabetical index to the 613 Precepts, etc. (ibid. 1689) :— '(3"n r>''1, the Green Olive, a Portu- guese translation of the words which frequently occur in the Mishna and Gemara, and of the technical ex- pressions (ibid. 1683) :— r>"l^"! cr:J l^i::, on the He- brew accents, printed together with No. 3 (ibid. 1688): — 'Vdb 1^, on Hebrew and Chaldee grammar, to which is appended n'^TOTS Il^rS, on the Biblical Aramaisras (ibid. 1682, 1689) :— Ciiiri -j^r, a Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Portuguese lexicon (ibid. 1682) : — P^^i' rnC"id, Chain of Terminations, a lexicon on Hebrew assonance (ibid. 1665): — D^"2r;itl '''OV'J, the Reasons for the Accents, a treatise on Hebrew accents, in which he discourses especially on the poetical accents of Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms, published with the Pentateuch and Haph- taroth (ibid. 1665, and often). He also wrote a Calendar, an astronomical work, etc. See Frankcl, Monatsschrift fur Gesch. u. Wissensch. d. Judenthums (Breslau, 1861), X, 432-430; Steinschneider, Catalogus Librorum in Biblioth. Budleiana, col. 2379-83 ; the same, Bibliogr. Handbuch (Berlin, 1859), No. 1471-78; Kitto, Cyclop. s. V. ; Flirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 46, etc. ; Wolf, Bibl. Hehr. i, iii, iv, 11. 1955 ; De Rossi, Dizionario storico degli autori Ebrei, p. 251 (Germ, transl. by Hamberger) ; Lindo, IHstory of the Jews of Spain and Portugal (Lond. 1848), p. 368 ; Finn, Sephardim, or the History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal (ibid. 1841), p. 464; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, iii, 179, 234 ; Kayserling, Sephai-dim (Leips. 1859), p. 206, 261, 315; the same, Geschichte der fuden in Portugal (ibid. 1867), p. 310 ; the same, Biblio- thek Jiidischer Kanzelredner (Berlin, 1870), vol. i ; Bei- blatt, p. 10. (B. P.)