Casiodoro de Reina | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1520 |
| Died | March 15, 1594(1594-03-15) (aged 73–74) |
| Occupation | Theologian |
| Notable work | Biblia del Oso |
Casiodoro de Reina orde Reyna (c. 1520 – 15 March 1594) was a Spanishtheologian who (perhaps with several others) translated theBible into Spanish.
Reina was born about 1520 inMontemolín in theProvince of Badajoz.[1][2] From his youth onward, he studied theBible.[1]
In 1557, he was a monk of theHieronymite Monastery ofSt. Isidore of the Fields, outsideSeville (Monasterio Jerónimo de San Isidoro del Campo de Sevilla).[3] Around then, he had contact withLutheranism and he became an adherent of theProtestant Reformation. He fled with about a dozen other monks when they came under suspicion by theSpanish Inquisition for Protestant tendencies to Geneva[3] But he was not comfortable with the atmosphere and the doctrinaire rigidity aroundJohn Calvin. In 1558, Reina declared that Geneva had become "a new Rome" and left.
Reina travelled in 1559[4] toLondon, where he served as apastor toSpanish Protestant refugees. However KingPhilip II of Spain was exerting pressure for his extradition.
In the late 1550s he was suspected by the Spanish inquisitors inSeville to have been the one who converted the monks of San Isidro to Lutheranism.[5] in April 1562, the Inquisition made anauto-da-fé in which aneffigy of him was burned. The works of Reina and his colleagues were placed inthe Index of prohibited books and he was declared a "heresiarch" (leader ofheretics).
About 1563[4] Reina went on toAntwerp, where he became associated with the authors of thePolyglot Bible. In April 1564 he went toFrankfurt, where he settled with his family.[4]
Reina wrote the first great book against the Inquisition:Sanctae Inquisitionis hispanicae artes aliquot detectae, ac palam traductae ("Some arts of Holy Inquisition"). This work was printed in 1567 inHeidelberg under the pseudonym:Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus.
He secretly translated the work of the critic of Calvin,Sebastian Castellion,De haereticis, an sint persequendi ("Concerning heretics, whether they should be Persecuted"), that condemned executions "for reasons of conscience" and documented the original Christian rejection of the practice.
While in exile, variously in London, Antwerp, Frankfurt,Orléans andBergerac, funded by various sources (such as Juan Pérez de Pineda) Reina began translating the Bible into Spanish by using a number of works as source texts. For theOld Testament, the work appears to have made extensive use of theFerrara Bible inLadino, with comparisons to theMasoretic Text and theVetus Latina. TheNew Testament derives from theTextus Receptus ofErasmus, with comparisons to the Vetus Latina andSyriac manuscripts. For the New Testament, he had great aid from the translations ofFrancisco de Enzinas andJuan Pérez de Pineda.
Reina was granted citizenship by Frankfurt on 16 August 1571. He worked as a silk trader to make money for his family. In 1574, he bought the library ofJohannes Oporinus at an auction in Basel[6] who had died in July 1568. With Oporinus he unsuccessfully attempted to publish the first Bible in the Spanish language before he died for which he advanced 400guilders.[7] It is speculated that Reina's Bible, published in Switzerland in 1569, which became the basis of theReina-Valera Bible, was a composite work of the expatriateIsidorean community, done by several different hands, with Reina the first among them.
Step by step, he became a true member of the Lutherans. Around 1580, he published aCatechism, in the sense of Luther's Catechism, in Latin, French and Dutch.[8]
Reina died in 1594 in Frankfurt.[4]
Besidehis Spanish Bible translation he published other works:[4][9]
