Paulus Canossa

Paulus Canossa, also PARADISUS, a convert from Judaism, flourished in the 16th century in Italy. For about five years, from 1533-1538, he was professor of Hebrew, and wrote Dialogus de modo legendi Hebraica (Paris, 1534). John Quinquarboreus (in Colomesius, Italia et Hispania, p. 68) says of him that, like his great namesake, he was also of the tribe of Benjamin; and in a work which he dedicated to Paradisus he addresses him in his dedication in the following manner, "Omnes in tui admirationem ingenii dexteritate trahis." Paradisus died in 1543, greatly lamented by Quinquarboreus, who gives vent to his feelings in the following lines: "Descende hue iterum, tui precantur, Nam postquam invida fata to tulerunt, Nemo substitui tibi meretur. Hac ergo ratione nunc necesse est, Ut sis suppositius tibi ipse." See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:65; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii, n. 1811 b; 4:950, n. 1811 f; Jocher, Allgem. Gelehrten - Lexikon, s.v.; Kalkar, Israel und die Kirche, p. 76. (B. P.)