ROSSI
138
ROSSIGNOL
Christian and Jewish writers ; the old Persian list of kings ; on the diflereut a?ras of the Jewish chronology ; Josephus; 8eder Ohim ; on the series of high-priests dur- ing the second Temple, etc., published with the second part (Vienna, 1829-30). The third section treats, in ch. xxix-xliv, of the Biblical chronology and the Jewish Cal- endar ; of old Persian kings ; extracts from and criticisms on Philo, Josephus, etc. The fourth section, embracing ch. xlv-lx, descants upon Jewish antiquities; Aquila and Onkelos ; the antiquity of the letters and the vowel-poin is; Hebrew poetry, etc.
This work, considered as a whole, though not dis- tinguished by scientific correctness or historical accu- racy, has nevertheless always been a favorite among Hebrew scholars, and parts of it have been translated into Latin, as ch. xxiii, xxv, xxxiii, xxxv, by Voorst, ill his translation of the TTH n^ClS (Leyden, 1644) ; ch. viii, xiv, xix, by JNFej'er, in his version of the "1"10 obi" (Amst. 1699); ch. ix, xlii, lix, by Buxtorf, in his Tractatus de A nliqvitate Punctorum (Basel, 1648) ; ch. 1, Ix, by the same, in his translation of Kuzari (ibid. 1660), and ch. Ivi, Iviii, in his Dissertatio de Litteris Heb. (ibid. 1662) ; ch. iii, v, vii, viii, ix, xix, xx, xlviii, bv Morin, in his Exerdtationes Biblicce (Paris, 1638), p. 185, 188, 190, 191, 230, 287, 314, 342, 563 ; ch. ii, viii, xv, xvi, xxii, xlv, li, Ivi, Ivii, lix, by De Voisin, in his edi- tion of IMartini's Piic/io Fidei udversits Mauros et Ju- dmos, etc. (ibid. 1651), p. 75, 77, 113, 122, 127, 128, 129, 142, 144, 373 ; ch. ix, by Van Dale, in his Disserta- tio super Arisieum, etc. (Amst. 1705), p. 174; ch. ix, xxii, by Bartolocci, in his Bibliotheca Magna Rab- binica (Rome, 1675-93), i, 680; ii, 800; ch. xvi and xxi, by Bochart, in his Hierozoicon (Leyden, 1712), pt. I, ch. vi; II, 569; and ch. Ivi, by Hottinger, in his Cippi Hebrai (Heidelb. 1662), p. 123. The sixteenth chap- ter has been translated into English by Raphall, in the Hebrew Review and ^fa(Jazine, ii, 170 (treating "of the gnat which entered the skull of Titus," as related in the Talmud) ; while the sixtieth chapter has been translated by bishop Lowth, in the preliminary dissertation to his transl. of Isaiah (Lond. 1835), p. xxviii, etc. De Rossi has criticised his material in so liberal a manner that many of the Jews proscribed the work, while others wrote in refutation of some of his liberal criticisms. Prominent among these were R. Moses Provencjale, of Mantua, and R. Isaac Finzi, of Pesaro. De Rossi subjoined to some copies of the Meor Enayim itself a reply to the former, and wrote a separate work entitled TipiS ^t^^^ ^> The Refining-pot for Silver, after Prov. xvii, 3. This work, which is an essential supplement to the Meor Enayim, has recently been published by Filipowski (Edinb. 1854), and by L. Zunz, with the ^feor Enayim (Wilna, 1863-66, 3 vols.). De Rossi also wrote Poems and Epigraphs, a^lfltrr, D'^"i"'i:J (Venice, 1586). Three years before his death, De Rossi had a dream. A man stood by him. and voices cried, "Dost thou not see the personage looking on thee? He is a prophet." "If so," said Azariah, addressing the stranger, " if thou art indeed inspired, let me know how long I have to live." " Three years yet," was the answer. By the wayside of Mantua the bones of the illustrious writer rested, and on his grave a significant inscription was placed, when the dream proved true, in Kislev, 5338 (i. e. 1577). The stone shared the fate of him who laj' buried beneath. Both were rudely cast away to some unknown spot by the Italian monks, who sought for more space to build up monasteries.
See Fiirst, Bibl. Jnd. iii, 171 sq. ; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, p. 280 sq. (Germ, transl.) ; Steinschneider, Cata- logus Libr. Hebr. in Bibl. Bodl. col. 747 ; Ginsburg in Kitto, s. v.; the same, Levita's Massoreth ha-Masso- reth, p. 52 scj., and Essenes, p. 59 sq. ; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i, 944; iii. 871 ; Ethcridge, Introd. to lleb. Literature, p. 455 ; Cassel, Leitfadcn Jiir Gesch. u. Literatur, p. 97 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Jiiden, ix, 432 S(j. 435 ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Secten, iii, 123; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 488; Zunz, Literatiirgesch. zur synagogalen
Poesie, p. 417 ; id. Biography of De Rossi in Kerem Chemed (Prague, 1841-42), v, 131-138; vii, 119-124; id. Zur Gesch. d. Literatur, p. 233, 249, 636 ; Rapaport in Kerem Chemed (ibid. 1842), v, 159-162; Jewish Mes- senger (N. Y. March, 1875). (B. P.)
Rossi (in Lat.Z'e^;<im), Bernardo Maria de, an Italian scholar, was born at Cividale di Friuli, Jan. 18, 1687. At the age of seventeen he took ffie vows of the Order of St. Dominic ; and after finishing his studies taught for three years in a convent at Venice. In 1718 he went to Vienna, where he made the acquaintance of the learned Apostolo Zeno. On his return, he accepted the chair of theology in the same institution in which he had formerly taught. In 1730 he resigned his chair and devoted himself wholly to study and the most rig- orous asceticism. In 1722 he accompanied an embassy to the court of France. He was librarian of his convent, and enriched it by the addition of many rare and valu- able works. De Rossi died Feb. 8, 1775. His writ- ings are very numerous, consisting principally of his- torical and religious annals. Among them are, De Eab- ula Monachi Benedictini D. Thomoe Aquinatis (Venice, 1724) : — De Peccato Originali (ibid. 1757) -.—De Chari- tate (ibid. 1758): — Dissertaliones Vai'ice Erudifionis (ibid. 1762). See Fabroni, Vitce Italorum. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog, Generale, s. v.