Ecchellensis or Echellensis Abraham;

a Maronite scholar, was born at Eckel, Syria, and was educated in Rome, where he afterwards taught the Syriac and Arabic languages. In 1630 he was called to Paris to assist in the preparation of the great Polyglot Bible of Le Jay. For this work Ecchellensis furnished Ruth in Syriac and Arabic, with a Latin translation, and the 3d book of Maccabees in Arabic. He undertook also the revision of the Syriac and Arabic texts, and the Latin versions contributed by Gabriel Sionita. He returned again to Rome to fill the chair of Oriental languages offered him in that city, and died there in 1664. Ecchellensis' writings are numerous; among the most important are: Lingua Syriacae sive Chaldaicae perbrevis. Institutio (Rome, 1628, 4to): — Synopsis propositorum sapientiae Arabum, inscripta speculum mundum representans, ex arabico sermone latini juris facta (Par. 1641, 4to). — Sancti Antonii Magni Epistolae viginti (Par. 1641, 8vo): — Concilii Niceni Prafatio, etc. (Par. 1645, 8vo): — Sancti Antonii Magni Regulae, sermones, documenta, admonitiones, responsiones, at vita duplex (Paris, 1646, 8vo): — Semita Sapiestia, sive ad scientias comparandas methodus (Paris, 1646): — De Proprietatibus et virtutibus medicis animalium, plantarum ac gemmarum, tractatus triplex Habdarrahman (Paris, 1647, 8vo): — Chronicon orientale nunc primum latinitate donatum cui accessit supplementum Historiae orientalis (Par. 1653, fol.): — Catalogus librorum Chaldaeorum, tam ecclesiasticorum quam profanorum, auctore Habed-Jesu (Rome, 1653, 8vo), with notes: —

Concordantia nationum christianarum orientalium in fidei catholicae dogmate (Mayence, 1655, 8vo). In this book he seeks to harmonize the sentiments of the Orientals with those of the Roman Church. Leo Allatius assisted him in his work. De Origine nominis Papa, ... adeo de ejus primatu, etc. (Rome, 1660), and Eutychius vindicatus sive Responsio ad Seldeni Origines (Rome, 1661, 4to), were works written in the controversy against the Protestants. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 5:621.