Louis Maracci

Louis (or Ludovico) Maracci (6 October 1612 – 5 February 1700), best known by name Lewis Maracci, was an Italian Oriental scholar and professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom at Rome.
He is chiefly known as the publisher and editor of Quran of Muhammad in Arabic. He is also well known for translating Quran in Latin, editing an Arabic Bible translation, and numerous other works.

Biography

He was born at Lucca in 1612. He had become a member of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca and learnt with reputed success in the study of the Eastern languages, especially the Arabic. He was the Confessor of Pope Innocent XI. Pope appointed him as the professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom - Sapienza University of Rome (in Italian, sapienza means wisdom), for his proficiency in that language. He later declined the promotion of being appointed as Cardinal. He died at an age of 88 in 1700.

Contributions

He has considerable share in editing the Roman edition of Arabic Bible, published at Rome in 1671, in three volumes. For this, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples appointed Abraham Ecchellensis and Maracci Lewis to undertake the revision of the edition to make it exactly, correspond with the Vulgate. Maracci wrote a new preface and made a list of errors of the former copy in 1668.

He acquired much celebrity in editing and publishing Quran in Arabic and translating that into Latin - Alcorani Textus Universus Arabicè et Latinè, in two volumes, at Padua in 1698. His version of Quran included a life of Mahomet, with notes, and refutations of Mahometan doctrines. It was the result of forty years of labour and toilsome research of the Benedictine monks.

George Sale's English translations of the Quran - The Koran, commonly called, The Alcoran of Mohammed -, in 1736, was done based on Maracci's Latin version of Quran in 1698.

He also authored The Life of Father Leonardi, the founder of his congregation - Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, and many more.

In 2012, a collection of his manuscripts were discovered at the Ordine dei Chierici Regolari della Madre di Dio 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 Qur'an, 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.