Raymond Martini

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RAYMOND MARTINI

Dominican theologian, Orientalist; b. Subirats, Catalonia, c. 1220; d. Barcelona, 1285. He taught in the School of Arabic Studies, Tunis, and the School of Hebrew Studies, Barcelona, founded by his order to Christianize North African Muslims and Spanish Jews. He was adviser to King Louis IX of France on his crusade against Tunis and acted as censor of books for Aragon under James I. His works include Explanatio symboli apostolorum, c. 1256 [ed. J. March, Anuari del Institud d'estudis catalans (Barcelona 1908)]; Pugio fidei, completed 1278 (Paris 1642, 1651; Leipzig 1687), based on Islamic and Jewish works and the Summa contra Gentiles of St. Thomas Aquinas; and Capistrum Judaeorum, written 1267, in MS. His authorship of other works ascribed to him is doubtful.

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum (New York 1959) 1.1:396398. a. berthier, "Un maître orientaliste du XIII (e) siècle," Archivum fratrum praedicatorum 6 (1936) 267311.

[p. f. mulhern]