Giovanni Diodati

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Giovanni Diodati (June 6, 1576 - October 3, 1649), first to translate the Bible into Italian from Hebrew and Greek sources.

Diodati was a Swiss Protestant divine, was born at Geneva, of a noble family originally belonging to Lucca, which had been expatriated on account of Giovanni's translations of the Bible.

At the age of twenty-one he was nominated professor of Hebrew at Geneva on the recommendation of Theodore Beza. In 1606 he became professor of theology, in 1608 pastor, or parish minister, at Geneva, and in the following year he succeeded Beza as professor of theology.

As a preacher he was eloquent, bold and fearless. He held a high place among the reformers of Geneva, by whom he was sent on a mission to France in 1614. He had previously visited Italy, and made the acquaintance of Paolo Sarpi, whom he endeavoured unsuccessfully to engage in a reformation movement.

In 1618‑1619 he attended the Synod of Dordrecht, and took a prominent part in its deliberations, being one of the six divines appointed to draw up the account of its proceedings. He was a thorough Calvinist, and entirely sympathized with the condemnation of the Arminians. In 1645 he resigned his professorship, and died at Geneva on the October 3, 1649.

Diodati is chiefly famous as the author of the translation of the Bible into Italian (1603, edited with notes, 1607). He also undertook a translation of the Bible into French, which appeared with notes in 1644. Among his other works are his Annotationes in Biblia (1607), of which an English translation (Pious and Learned Annotations upon the Holy Bible) was published in London in 1648, and various polemical treatises, such as De fictitio Pontificiorum Purgatorio (1619); De justa secessione Reformatorum ab Ecclesia Romana (1628); De Antichristo, etc. He also published French translations of Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, and of Edwin Sandys's Account of the State of Religion in the West.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.