GABRIEL SIONITA, a learned Maronite, was born near the end of the sixteenth century at Edden, a small town on Mount Lebanon. He was appointed professor of oriental languages at Rome, whence he was transferred in 1614 to Paris, in order that he might co-operate with Le Jay in the preparation and construction of his famous Polyglot. The Syriac and the Arabic texts were prepared by Sionita from copies which he made with his own hand from MSS. at Rome. The vowel points were added by himself as they still stand both in Le Jay and in the English Polyglot. His also is the Latin version which is in accordance with the punctuation of the texts. A dispute having arisen between him and Le Jay, he did not continue to superintend the Arabic and Syriac portions of the work to the end; in these Abraham Eccliel continued and completed the work. Sionita was the translator of the Arabic Geography of Abu-Abdallah-Mohamed Edrissi into Latin, and entitled Geographia Nubiensis, 4to, 1619. He published also an Arabic Grammar, which bore a high character in its day. He also translated the Psalms of David into Arabic; and soon after died in 1646 at Paris, where he had for some years been professor-royal of Syriac and Arabic.