Raimundo Diosdado Caballero

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Miscellaneous writer, chiefly ecclesiastical, born at Palma, in the island of Majorca, 19 June 1740; died at Rome, either 16 January 1830, or 28 April 1829. He entered the Society of Jesus 15 November, 1752, held the chair of literature in the Jesuit College at Madrid for several years, and was deported with the other Jesuits to Italy when the Society was suppressed in the Spanish dominions. In his new home father Caballero developed a varied literary activity. The following are the most important of his works:

• "De Primá typographiae hispanicae aetate specimen" (Rome, 1793);
• "Commentariola critica, primum de discipliná arcani, secundum de linguá evangelicá" (Rome, 1798). The author corrects in this work what he considers to be the mistakes of Schelstrate and Hardouin, and proves that the native tongue of Christ and the Apostles was Syriac, not Greek, as Dominicus Diodati (d. 1801) had maintained in his "De Christo loquente exercitatio" (Naples, 1767).
• "Bibliothecae Scriptorum Societatis Jesu supplementa. Supplementum primum" (Rome, 1814), "Supplementum primum" (Rome, 1814), "Supplementum alterum" (Rome, 1816);
• Father Caballero shows his Scriptural knowledge in his "Tetraglotton D. Marei Evangelium, et Marcologia critica"; "El Evangelio de S. Marcos escrito en latin, griego y hebreo, con los tres alfabetos".

  Not to mention several historical works, we may add here his writings on American subjects: "Observaciones americanas, y supplemento critico á la historia de México"; "Medios para estrechar más la union entre espanoles americanos y europeos"; "Consideraciones americanas".

A.J. MAAS