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Jerome de Prado

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Exegete, b. at Baeza in Spain, 1547; d. at Rome, 13 Jan., 1595. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1572; taught literature; and then filled the chair of scripture at Cordova for sixteen years. His great work is the "Tomus Primus in Ezechiel" (fol. pp. 360; Rome, 1596). After sixteen years spent on this tome he died at Rome, where he was seeking illustrations for it. He had reached the twenty-sixth chapter. The remainder of Ezechiel was interpreted by John Baptist Villalpando, S.J., of Cordova, who added two volumes: Of these the second is in two parts: I. "Explanationum Ezechielis prophetæ, pars prima, in tredecim capita sequentia" (fol. pp. 104; Rome, 1604); II. "De postrema Ezechielis prophetæ visione" (fol. pp. 655; Rome, 1605). This second part of the second volume goes into a detailed archæological study of the Temple. The third volume of this commentary on Ezechiel is entitled "Appartus urbis ac templi Hierosolymitani" (folio, pp. xvi, 603; Rome, 1604). There are two parts to the volume, and both are the joint work of Prado and Villalpando. Commentaries on Isaias, Zachary, Micheas, the Epistle to the Hebrews, together with a book on biblical chronology, are among the manuscripts works left by Prado, several of which are in the National Library of Madrid. The volumes published by Villalpando were dedicated to Philip II, at whose request and cost the work begun by Prado was brought to a successful completion. These three volumes have always been highly esteemed for their thorough and scientific study of Jewish coins, weights, and measures; likewise for the care with which the Temple and the City of Jerusalem are reconstructed from the very few data at hand. Cardinal Wiseman found the work of Prado to be "still the greatest repertory to which every modern scholiast must recur, in explaining the difficulties of the book" (Science and Revealed Religion, II, London, 1851, 199). The younger Rosen Müller calls these volumes "a work replete with varied erudition, and most useful to the study of antiquity" (Ezechielis Vaticinia", I, Leipzig, 1826, 32, in Wiseman, I, c.). Among those whom Prado inspired with his thoroughness and enthusiasm in the study of the Bible were his pupils John Pineda and Louis de Alcazar.