Nick: New page: Angelo Mai. '''Angelo Mai''' (''Latin'' '''Angelus Maius'''; March 7, 1782 - September 8, 1854) was an Italian [[Card...

2020-10-31T10:10:55Z

New page: Angelo Mai. '''Angelo Mai''' (''Latin'' '''Angelus Maius'''; March 7, 1782 - September 8, 1854) was an Italian [[Card...

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[[Image:Angelo Mai - Imagines philologorum.jpg|right|thumb|Angelo Mai.]]
'''Angelo Mai''' (''Latin'' '''Angelus Maius'''; March 7, 1782 - September 8, 1854) was an [[Italy|Italian]] [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] and [[philologist]].[1] He won a European reputation for publishing for the first time a series of previously unknown ancient texts. These he was able to discover and publish, first while in charge of the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana|Ambrosian library]] in Milan and then in the same role at the [[Vatican Library]]. The texts were often in parchment manuscripts that had been washed off and reused; he was able to read the lower text using chemicals. In particular he was able to locate a substantial portion of the much sought-after ''De republica'' of [[Cicero]] and the complete works of [[Virgilius Maro Grammaticus]].

==Biography==
He was born of humble parents at [[Schilpario]] in what is now the [[province of Bergamo]], [[Lombardy]].[2]

In 1799 he entered the [[Society of Jesus]], and in 1804 he became a teacher of classics in the college of [[Naples]]. After completing his studies at the [[Collegium Romanum]], he lived for some time at [[Orvieto]], where he was engaged in teaching and palaeographical studies. The political events of 1808, when French troops occupied the Papal States, necessitated his withdrawal from [[Rome]] (to which he had meanwhile returned) to [[Milan]], where in 1813 he was made custodian of the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana|Ambrosian library]].[2]

He now threw himself with characteristic energy and zeal into the task of examining the numerous manuscripts committed to his charge, and in the course of the next six years was able to restore to the world a considerable number of long-lost works. Having withdrawn from the Society of Jesus, he was invited to Rome in 1819 as chief keeper of the [[Vatican Library]]. In 1833 he was transferred to the office of secretary of the [[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Congregation of the Propaganda]]; on February 12, 1838, he was raised to the dignity of cardinal. He died at [[Castel Gandolfo]], near [[Albano Laziale|Albano]], on 8 September 1854.[]
His monumental tomb is located in the left transept of the [[Basilica di Sant'Anastasia al Palatino]] by the late neoclassical sculptor [[Giovanni Maria Benzoni]].

It is on his skill as a reader of [[palimpsest]]s that Mai's fame chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong:
*fragments of [[Cicero]]'s ''Pro Scauro'', ''Pro Tullio'', ''Pro Flacco'', ''In Clodium et Curionem'', ''De aere alieno Milonis'', and ''De rege Alexandrino'' (1814)
*''[[Marcus Cornelius Fronto|M. Corn. Frontonis]] opera inedita, cum epistolis item ineditis'', ''Antonini Pii'', ''Marci Aurelii'', ''Lucii Veri et Appiani'' (1815; new ed., 1823, with more than 100 additional letters found in the Vatican library)
*portions of eight speeches of [[Quintus Aurelius Symmachus]]
*fragments of [[Plautus]]
*the oration of [[Isaeus]]' ''De hereditate Cleonymi''
*the last nine books of the ''Antiquities'' of [[Dionysius Halicarnassensis|Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], and a number of other works.
*''M Tullii Ciceronis [[De re publica|de republica]] quae supersunt'' appeared at Rome in 1822
*''Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e Vaticanis codicibus edita'' ("A new collection of ancient writings, edited from Vatican codices") in 1825-1838
*''Classici scriptores e Vaticanis codicibus editi'' ("Classical writers edited from Vatican codices") in 1828-1838
*''Spicilegium Romanum'' ("A Roman gleaning") in 1839-1844
*''Patrum nova bibliotheca'' ("A new library of [Church] fathers") in 1845-1853[2]

His edition of the celebrated ''[[Codex Vaticanus]]'', completed in 1838, but not published (ostensibly on the ground of inaccuracies) till four years after his death (1858), is the least satisfactory of his labours and was superseded by the edition of Vercellone and Cozza (1868), which itself leaves much to be desired.[2]

Although Mai was not as successful in [[textual criticism]] as in the decipherment of manuscripts, he will always be remembered as a laborious and persevering pioneer, by whose efforts many ancient writings have been rescued from oblivion.[2]

==References==
* 1. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Angelo Mai" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
* 2. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mai, Angelo". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 427.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mai, Angelo}}
[[Category:1782 births]]
[[Category:1854 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Schilpario]]
[[Category:Italian cardinals]]
[[Category:Cardinals created by Pope Gregory XVI]]
[[Category:Italian philologists]]
[[Category:Italian Jesuits]]
[[Category:19th-century Roman Catholic priests]]

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Angelo Mai - Revision history

Nick: New page: Angelo Mai. '''Angelo Mai''' (''Latin'' '''Angelus Maius'''; March 7, 1782 - September 8, 1854) was an Italian [[Card...