Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

monm
" When I lately replied to thy friendly letter, illustrious Diodati, I had not yet
received the truly divine gift vs^ith which thou hast gratified me. So I thanked thee
for it, in advance, as not having seen it, nor slaked the thirst for enjoyment by that
deep perusal which I have more recently endeavored to give to it. . . . Indeed,
my very learned friend, from the moment when I cast my eyes on thy version, and
the notes so remarkable, I was so much interested that I resolved to acquaint myself
with the entire work, with the greatest care. . . . Now
that anxieties diverse
enough crush me, so to speak, I shall pursue more slowly, but more attentively, the
reading which I have begun ; and I shall do this the more perseveringly inasmuch
as I have already often experienced what great profit I shall find in the study of
both thy version and thy notes." "
But Jean Diodati was far from being a man of learning alone. He
had too much of Italian fervor of temperament, and was too deeply
imbued with the Christian spirit, not to wish to take a part in spreading
the faith which he nourished by the study of the Scriptures. His attention
was most naturally directed, in a special manner, to his beloved native
land. Venice was the outpost which he aspired to take possession of for
the cause of Reform. A great hostility to the Papal See, awakened there
by the excommunication of the Republic by Paul V.; the potent influence,
though secret, of the celebrated Fra Paolo Sarpi ; the encouragement of
the English ambassador Wotton ;
and other circumstances, seemed to have
opened the way. During several years our Diodati was, more or less,
engaged in this enterprise ; and in that time he twice visited Venice in
person. His plans, however, failed ; and we refer to the undertaking more
for the light it throws upon the character of the man than for any historical
'* De Bud6's Vie de Jean Diodati, ut supra, pp. 164-65. Richard Simon, on the other hand, thought
Diodati's translation too periphrastic, and more definite on the side of his o%vn theological opinions than
true to the original. But Diodati seems to have spared no labor to perfect his work in successive
editions ; the younger Buxtorf wrote of him that his authority as an interpreter of Scripture had great
weight, inasmuch as he was chiefly occupied, all his life, "in examinando sensu textus sacri, atque
Bibliis vertendis "— Schotel's Jean Diodati, ut supra, p. 21 ; and
the English editor of his Annotations,
in 165 1, said that "in polishing and perfecting them, in severall editions, he hath laboured ever since"
he first finished them.
385