Valencia, Jacobo Perez De

Valencia, Jacobo Perez de an anchorite, commonly called bishop of Christopolitauius, was born about 1420 at Valencia, in Spain, whence he derived his .name. He became a hermit of the Order of St. Augustine, and is the author of Quaestiones Quinque contra Judaeos de Christo Reparatore Generis Hiunmaai Expositio Psalmorum Davidis (Leyden, 1512, 1514, 1517). In his Proleg. in Psalmos, tract. 6, he gives an amusing account of the origin of the vowel-points: 41 Post conversionem Constantini Magni videntes Rabbinos omnes Gentiles cum tanta devotione ad fidem Christi converti per totum orbem, et ecclesiam tanto favore prosperari et etiam quod fitnita multitudo Judaeorum videntes manifestam veritatem per experientiam et miracula, pariter convertebantur, et sic deficiebant qusestis et reditus et tributa Rabbindrum, hac iliiquitate commotos magna multitudine congregatos fulisse apud Babyloniam Egypti, quse dicitur Cayre; ibique quanto majis caute potuerunt, conatos fuisse falsificare et pervertere Scripturas a vero sensu et significatione. Inde confinxisse supra quinque vel septem puncta loco vocalium, quorum punctorum inventores fuisse Ravina et Ravasse duos doctores eorumr. Addit istos Rabbinos confinxisse libros Talmud." He died Aug. 1, 1491. See Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten. Lexikon, s.v. "Perez;" Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 466; Hodv, De Bibliorunm Textibus Originalibus (Oxford, 1705), III, 2, 442. (B.P.)