Sante Pagnini (M / Italy, 1470-1536), scholar

Sante Pagnini (1470-1536) was an Italian scholar, a Christian Hebraist. Christian Hebraist. Born at Lucca, Italy, at sixteen Sante Pagnini entered the Dominican Order at Fiesole, near Florence. Was instructed by Girolamo Savonarola and befriended the cardinals of the Medici family. Studied both Greek and Hebrew. After a series of monastic functions, as prior of several Domenican houses in Pistoia, Florence and Lucca, in 1513 was summoned by the Pope Leo X to teach Greek and Hebrew in Rome, where he remained until 1521. Spent the last years of his life as preacher at Avignon and then at Lyon, France, where he died in 1536.

In 1527 Pagnini was the author of a new Latin translation of the entire Bible from the original languages, the first after Jerome (in 1454 Giannozzo Manetti had completed the translation of the only New Testament). Pagnini also was the first to divide the text of the Bible into chapters and verses. Ever since, his division of the Old Testament has become standard. That of the New Testament instead was modified by the French scholar Robert Estienne in his edition of the Greek text in 1551. Pagnini's division is not always respectful of the logical development of the texts, but proved to be very useful to identify accurately and succinctly the biblical passages.