FLAVIUS EBORENSIS or DIDACCO PYRRHO:

Poet; born at Evora, Portugal, April 4, 1517; died at Ragusa, Sicily, 1607. He belonged to the Adumim, an old Spanish family, the greater part of which settled in Italy and assumed the name "De Rossi." His parents, in order to avoid persecution, pretended to adopt Christianity; but they inculcated in their son a love of Judaism, and recommended him, when he was scarcely seventeen years old, to leave his native country for a land where he could openly profess his faith. In 1536 Flavius went to Flanders, then to Switzerland, and in 1552 settled at Ancona.

He was considered one of the greatest Latin poets of his time, and was the author of many valuable poetical works, several of which were published. These include: "Excerpta ex Flavii Jacobi Eborensis Carminibus ad Historiam Sacram Rachusinam Aliquo Modo Facientibus"; "Jacobi Flavii Eborensis seu Didaci Pirrhi Lusitani Elegiarum Libri Tres ad Dominicum Slatorichium," Venice, 1596; "Elegia in Obitum P. Marci Vetranii," in the collection "Vitæ et Carmina Nonnullorum Illustrium Civium Racusinorum," ib. 1593; "Cato Minor," ib. 1592; "De Exilio Suo," Castelnuovo, 1583; "Carmina Selecta," Cracow, 1582.

Bibliography:
  • Cherso, Della Vita e degli Scritti di Didacco Pyrrho;
  • Mortara and Grünwald, in Jüdisches Centralblatt, ii. 74;
  • M. Lattes, Notizie e Documenti di Letteratura e Storia Giudaice, pp. 32 et seq.;
  • Leone Luzzatto, in Corriere Israelitico, xv. 12, 131;
  • Grünwald and Casnacick, Didacco Pyrrho, auch Flavius Eborensis Genannt, Frankfort-on-the Main, 1883.
G. I. Br.
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