Allioli, Joseph Franz von, 1793-1873

Joseph Franz von Allioli (10 August, 1793 at Sulzbach, Germany – 22 May, 1873 at Augsburg, Germany), was a Roman Catholic theologian and orientalist. Allioli studied theology at Landshut and was ordained at Ratisbon in 1816, and is most renowned for his translation of the Old and New Testaments, the 6-volume Ṻbersetzung der heiligen Schriften Alten und Neuen Testaments aus der Vulgata, published between 1830 and 1835. Based on Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, it was the first German Bible to receive the imprimatur of the Catholic Church, in whose eyes Martin Luther’s enormously influential 16th-century translation was the unacceptable work of a Protestant heretic. Allioli's Bible was read widely in his lifetime and was, until eclipsed by more modern rivals, the standard Scripture of German Catholicism. From 1818 to 1820, he studied Semitic languages at Vienna, Rome, and Paris. He taught Hebrew language, used his knowledge of it to write about the Bible, and wrote an 11-stanza poem in Hebrew titled "In Praise of the Hebrew Language,” the first stanza of which reads Thou, child of heaven, mistress of all tongues, Exalted art thou from primeval time By He who dwelt betwixt the cherubim. From on high He descended on His holy mount With pen of fire to engrave thee on twin tablets, His flame emblazoning thee upon them. He became professor in the University at Landshut in 1824, and was transferred with the university to Munich in 1826. Owing to a weak throat, he had to accept a canonry at Ratisbon in 1835, and became Dean of the chapter at Augsburg, in 1838.