Benito Arias Montano

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Benito Arias Montano (1527–1598) was a Spanish scholar, linguist, and polymath who worked mainly in Spain. He was born in Fregenal de la Sierra, Extremadura, studied at the Universities of Seville and Alcalá, and became a priest around 1559. He joined the Military Order of St. James and took part in the Council of Trent (1562), where he earned distinction. After a period of study in a hermitage at Aracena, King Philip II called him in 1568 to oversee a grand, multi-language Bible project.

Montano edited and directed the Antwerp Polyglot Bible, published in eight volumes by Plantin in 1572. He traveled to Rome to obtain the pope’s approval for the work. His liberal use of rabbinical sources drew criticism from León de Castro and led to charges by the Spanish Inquisition that he altered the Latin Vulgate; after several journeys to Rome, he was cleared in 1580. He then returned to his hermitage but accepted the roles of royal chaplain and overseer of the Escorial library, as well as a teacher of Semitic languages.

He designed a world map included in the Polyglot Bible, notable for depicting Tierra del Fuego as an island. Montano lived an ascetic life devoted to prayer and study. He wrote many works beyond the polyglot project, including Antiquitatum judaicarum libri IX (1593), Humanae salutis monumenta (1571), a Latin translation of Benjamin of Tudela’s Itinerary, biblical commentaries, and religious poetry.