After study (from 1625) and be ordained a priest in Rome, and after a visit to Nicolas Peiresc in 1635 in Aix-en-Provence, he asked before his return to Lebanon in January 1642 to Cardinal Richelieu to buy Greek and Oriental manuscripts for him in the Orient.
Between 1648 and 1656 he worked, beside his nephew and successor Gabriel Sionita, as professor of Arabic at the Collège de France.