SANCTUS, a learned Italian Dominican, was born at Lucca in 1466. He was deeply and accurately skilled in Latin, Greek, Chaldaic, Arabic, and particularly Hebrew. After examining the vulgar translation of the Scriptures, he pronounced it very inaccurate, and undertook to make a new one from the Hebrew text. Under the patronage of Leo X., his version was printed at Lyons in 1528. This is the first modern translation of the Bible from the Hebrew text. Pagninus, however, is thought to have adhered with too great servility to the original, and thus to have rendered his translation obscure, barbarous, and full of solemnisms. He also translated the New Testament from the Greek; and was author of a Hebrew Lexicon and a Hebrew Grammar. He died in 1536, at the age of seventy. Luther spoke of him and his translations in terms of the highest praise.