ARIANO, i're-a'no, Italy, town in the province of Avellino, 44 miles northeast of Naples, in one of the most frequented passes of the Apennines. In the limestone cliffs of the neighborhood caves have been hollowed out and serve as dwellings for many of the poorer classes. Earthenware is the chief manufacture. It is the seat of a bishop and contains a hand some cathedral. Pop. (1901) 17,650.
ARIAS, Montanus Benedictus, Spanish Orientalist and editor of the Antwerp Polyglot: b. Fregenal de la Sierra, Estrema dura, 1527; d. Seville 1598. He was educated at Seville and at Alcala where he became dis tinguished for his proficiency in the Semitic languages. He traveled through France, Italy, Germany, England and Holland and thus be came acquainted with several modern tongues. About 1559 he took orders and attended the Council of Trent as consulting theologian to the bishop of Segovia. On his return he se cluded himself in a cloister among the moun tains of Andalusia in order to give his whole time to literature. Philip H drew him forth from his seclusion in 1568 and persuaded him to go to Antwerp to superintend and edit the 'Polyglot Bible,' projected in that city by the celebrated printer, Christopher Plantin. The
work appeared in eight volumes folio between 1568 and 1573. Only 500 sets were printed and the greater part of them were lost at sea, on the way to Spain. The work was well received by all except the Jesuits, to whom Arias was strenuously opposed. Leon de Castro, a pro fessor at Salamanca, brought charges of heresy against Arias because he had included much rabbinical matter in the work and the latter journeyed to Rome in 1575-76 to clear himself and was acquitted. Philip gave him a pension and made him court chaplain. He wrote sev eral works dealing with the Bible, Jewish antiquities, etc., and also a history of nature and several Latin poems. The best known is his 'Jewish Antiquities,' attached to the 'Poly glot) and also published separately. Consult Gorris, 'Vie d'Arias Montano' (Brussels 1842) and