Zamora, Alfonso de
ZAMORA, ALFONSO DE
Eminent Hebraist; b. Zamora, Spain, c. 1474; d. place unknown, c. 1531. Although born and reared a Jew and educated as a rabbi, he became a Catholic in 1506, taking in baptism the name Alfonso. He was the first professor of Hebrew at the University of Salamanca. While there he collaborated on the preparation of the Complutensian polyglot bible, editing the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and its Aramaic Targum. The Latin translation of the latter is from his pen, as is the sixth volume, containing a Hebrew-Aramaic-Latin dictionary. Among his writings, all in Latin, are the Grammaticae hebraicae libri tres, the Catalogus iudicum, regum et sacerdotum atque prophetarum Veteris Legis, and the Epistula auctoris ad infideles Hebraeos urbis Romae, which was written to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah.
Bibliography: g. bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica, 4 v. (Rome 1685–93) 2:31; 3:811. Enciclopedia universal ilustrada Europeo–Americana, 70 v. (Barcelona 1908–30; suppl.1934) 4:614. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. in 6 (3d ed. Innsbruck 1903–13) 2:1134.
[s. m. polan]