Calasio, Mario Di

Calasio, Mario Di, named from a village of that name in the Abruzzo, where he was born in 1550. He became a Franciscat, and devoted himself to Hebrew, in which he soon became so great a proficient that Pope Paul V made him D.D. and professor of Hebrew at Rome. He is best known by his Hebrew Concordance, which occupied him during forty years, even with the aid of other learned men. He was about to commit this work to the press, when he died, in 1620. It appeared under the title Concordantice Sacrorum Bibliorum Hebraicce cur convenientiis ling. Arab. etSyr. (Rome, 1621, 4 vols. fol.). Another edition was published by Romaine at London in 1747, but it is not considered so accurate as that of 1621. He is said to have died chanting the Psalms in Hebrew. — Biog. Univ. 6:504.