Giulio Bartolocci

A Cistercian monk and learned Hebrew scholar, b. at Celleno in the old kingdom of Naples, 1 April, 1613; d. at Rome, 19 October, 1687. He began his Hebrew studies under Giovanni Battista, a converted Jew, and in 1651 was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at the Collegium Neophytorum at Rome and Scriptor Hebraicus at the Vatican Library. It was here that he, with the assistance of Battista, collated the materials for his famous work "Bibliotheca Magana Rabbinica" which appeared in four volumes during the years 1675-93. The last volume was published by his disciple, Carlo Giuseppi Imbonati , who also published a supplementary volume in 1694. This monumental work contains an account of Jewish literature and embodies besides it numerous bibliographical and biographical data, a number of dissertations on Jewish customs, etc. Although it has been adjudged uncritical by Richard Simon, Bartolocci's work was adopted by Wolf as the basis of his own "Bibliotheca Hebraica". Bartolocci died as Abbot of the monastery of St. Sebastiani ad Catacumbas in Rome.