Benedictus Arias Montanus

Benito Arias Montanus was a Spanish Orientalist and Royal Chaplain to King Phillip II of Spain. He wrote a Hebrew guide complete with Biblical maps and edited King Phillip II’s great Polyglot Bible. In the Bible, Montanus included a Hebrew text and translation by Leon de Castro, a colleague at Salamanca University. However, de Castro denounced Montanus to the Spanish Inquisition for having heretically altered the Bible. He was eventually freed of the charges in 1580. Thereafter, Montanus took on the post of Royal Chaplain, looked after the Escorial library, and taught Eastern languages. The Antwerp version of the ‘Polyglot Bible’ (1568) included a world map, which was one of the first to plot Tierra del Fuego in Southern America.