Peter Nigri - Works

Works

Niger ranks among the most eminent theologians and preachers of the latter half of the fifteenth century. He was a keen disciple of Aquinas, zealous for the integrity of his teachings and adhering strictly to the traditions of his school. In his few theological works he limits himself almost entirely to the discussion of abstract questions of logic and psychology.

He devoted most of his time to preaching to the Jews. He had learned their language and become familiar with their literature at Salamanca and Montpellier by associating with Jewish children and attending the lectures of the rabbis. At Ratisbon, Worms, and Frankfort-on-the-Main he preached in German, Latin, and Hebrew, frequently challenging the rabbis to a disputation.

He wrote two anti-Semitic works, one in Latin, Tractatus contra Perfidos Judaeos (Esslingen, 1475), which is probably the earliest printed anti-Jewish work, and in which he severely attacked the Jews and the Talmud. The other, written in German, is entitled Stern des Messias (Esslingen, 1477). Reuchlin in his Augenspiegel declared them absurd.

Both works are furnished with appendices giving the Hebrew alphabet in Hebrew and Latin type, rules of grammar and for reading Hebrew, the Decalogue in Hebrew, some Messianic texts from the Old Testament, etc. They are among the earliest specimens of Hebrew printing in Germany, and the first attempt at Hebrew grammar in that country by a Christian scholar. They were afterwards published separately as Commentatio de primis linguae Hebraicae elementis (Altdorf, 1764).

Peter Teuto, O. P. (Quétif, I, 855) and Peter Eystettensis (Eck, "Chrysopassus Cent.", XLIX) are most probably to be identified with this Peter Nigri.