Ludovico Marracci (6 October 1612 – 5 February 1700), also known byLuigi Marracci,[1] was anItalianOriental scholar and professor ofArabic in theCollege of Wisdom atRome.[2][3][4][5]
He is chiefly known as the publisher and editor ofQuran ofMuhammad in Arabic. He is also well known for translating Quran inLatin, editing an ArabicBible translation, and numerous other works.[2][3][4][6]
He was born atLucca in 1612. He had become a member of theClerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca and learnt with reputed success in the study of non-European languages, especiallyArabic. He was theConfessor ofPope Innocent XI. The Pope appointed him professor of Arabic atSapienza University of Rome due to his proficiency in that language. In 1665 he was part of the team that debunked thelead tablets of Granada.[7]
He later declined the promotion of being appointed to the rank ofCardinal of the Catholic Church. He died at an age of 88 in 1700.[2][3]
He authoredThe Life of FatherLeonardi, the founder of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, and many more.[2]
In 2012, a collection of his manuscripts were discovered at the Order of Clerics Regular of the Mother of God in Rome. The collection consists of almost 10,000 pages. The manuscripts include his work material, notes and significant information on his approach to translating the Qurʻan, as well as different versions of his translation. Based on the study of these manuscripts, a new examination of his life, influence, and methods has been published.[8]
He has considerable share in editing the Roman edition of theArabic Bible, published in 1671 in three volumes. For this, theCongregation for the Evangelization of Peoples appointedAbraham Ecchellensis and Ludovico Marracci to undertake the revision of the edition to make it exactly correspond with theVulgate. Marracci wrote a new preface and made a list of errors of the former copy in 1668.[2][3][4][9]
Ludovico Marracci acquired much fame in editing and publishing theQurʻan in Arabic with his translation into Latin.Alcorani Textus Universus Arabicè et Latinè, was published inPadua in 1698 in two volumes. His version of the Qurʻan included a life ofMuhammad, with notes, and refutations ofMuslim doctrines.[2][3][10] It was the result of forty years of labour and toilsome research of theBenedictines.[5] He also published in 1691, in Latin, a refutation of the Quran titledProdromus Ad Refutationem Alcoran.[11]
Marracci's Islamic texts includedIbn Abī Zamanīn,Al-Tha'alibi,Zamakhsharī,Baydִāwī andSuyūtִī.[12]
Alcorani's ‘Introduction’ (Prodromus) had been published seven years earlier in 1691.[13]
George Sale's English translation of the Qurʻan,The Alcoran of Mohammed, in 1736, was done based on Marracci's 1698 Latin translation.[14][15][16][17]
An edition of Arabic Bible - superintended by Abram Ecchellensis and Lewis Maracci
