Background
Obicini was born in Novara, Italy.
Obicini was born in Novara, Italy.
He was one of the first orientalists. He was a Franciscan Arabist. He was abbot in the convent of Aleppo.
During his stay in the east he made himself master, in addition to Hebrew and Chaldee, of the Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic languages.
In 1621, Obicini became the first lector in Arabic in the San Pietro in Montorio convent. He was a precursor of Athanasius Kircher.
He wrote a Grammatica Arabica in 1631. His largest work was the Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus, published in 1636, a dictionary whose purpose was to make it easier for Latin speakers to propagate the Christian faith among Syriac and Arabic speakers.
R. P. F. F. P.