production, of a very different description from the vast volumes which Dempster and M'Kenzie have profusely attached to his name. We have been unable to procure access to this dictionary, or to ascertain its existence in any public library. Without some more ample data or authority, we should deem ourselves worthy of the reproach of pedantry, were we to abbreviate the accounts presented to us, and tell the reader, ex cathedra, what he is to believe and what he is to discredit. We have then before us the choice, either to pass Mr Hepburn over in silence, or briefly to state the circumstances of his life, as they have been previously narrated. To follow the former would be disrespectful, not only to the veracious authors we have already mentioned, but also to the authors of the various respectable biographical works who have admitted Hepburn on the list of the ornaments of literature ; and the latter method, if it do not furnish food for investigation, may at least give some amusement,
James Bonaventura Hepburn, was son to Thomas Hepburn, rector of Old-hamstocks in Lothian. M'Kenzie states that he was born on the 14th day of July, 1573, and, that we may not discredit the assertion, presents us with a register kept by the rector of Oldhamstocks, of the respective periods of birth of his nine sons. He received his university education at St Andrews, where, after his philosophical studies, he distinguished himself in the acquisition of the oriental languages. Although educated in the principles of the protestant religion, he was induced to become a convert to the church of Rome. After this change in his faith, he visited the continent, residing in France and Italy, and thence passing through "Turkey, Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopia, and most of the eastern countries," gathering languages as he went, until he became so perfect a linguist, u that he could have travelled over the whole earth, and spoke to each nation in their own language." On returning from these laborious travels, he entered the monastery of the Minims at Avignon, an order so called from its members choosing in humility to denominate themselves "Minimi Fratres Eremitae," as being more humble still than the Minores, or Franciscans. He afterwards resided in the French monastery of the holy Trinity at Rome. Here his eminent qualities attracted a ferment of attention from the learned world, and pope Paul the fifth, invaded his retirement, by appointing him librarian of the oriental books and manuscripts of the Vatican.[1]
We shall now take the liberty of enumerating a few of the many weighty productions of our author's pen, chiefly it is to be presumed written during the six years in which he was librarian of the Vatican. Dictionarium Hebraicum—Dictionarium Chaldaicum—Peter Malcuth, seu gloria vel decus Israelis, [continet cent, homilias sive conciones]—Epitomen Chronicorum Romanorum—Gesta liegum Israelis—Grammatica Arabica, (said to have been published at Rome in 1591, 4to.) He translated Commentarii Rabbi Kimchi in Psalterium—Rabbi Abraham Aben Ezra Librum de Mysticis numeris Ejusdem Libra in alium de septemplici modo interpretandi sacram scripturam.
We shall now turn our consideration to one work of the celebrated linguist, from which a little more information appears to be derivable. This is the "Schema Septuaginta Duorum Idiomatum, sive virga aurea—quia Beata Virgo dicitur tot aimis in vivis fuisse; et ille numerus discipulorum est Christi, et Romanae Ecclesias cardinalium, et tot mysteria in nomine Dei: Romæ, 1616." M'Kenzie says, "this was communicated to me by the late Sir John Murray of
- ↑ It is singular that a person in the 17th century, living in Italy, professing so many languages in a country where linguists were rare, a librarian of the Vatican, and one whose "eminent parts had divulged his lame through the whole city"—should have entirely escaped the vast researches of Andre in general literature, Fraboschi's ample Investigation of Italian Literature, the minute Ecclesiastical Bibliographies of Dupin and Labbe, and other works of the same description.
