Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi (21 October 1684 – 12 September 1771) was an Italian priest,

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

and philologist.

Biography

Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi was born in 1684 at Santa Maria, near Capua. He attended the Seminaries of Capua and Naples. He was ordained a priest in 1709, and became professor of Greek and Hebrew at the archiepiscopal seminary at Naples. In 1711 he was made a canon of the

Cathedral of Capua Capua Cathedral ( it, Basilica cattedrale di Maria SS. Assunta in Coelo; Duomo di Capua) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Capua, Campania, Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is the episcopal seat of the Archbish ...

and in 1735 he was appointed professor of theology and Sacred Scripture at the University of Naples. He died in Naples on 12 September 1771. His funerary monument was sculpted by

Giuseppe Sanmartino Giuseppe Sanmartino or Giuseppe Sammartino (1720 – 1793) was an Italian sculptor during the Rococo period. Sanmartino was born in Naples. His first dated (1753) work is '' Veiled Christ'' or ''Christ lying under the Shroud'', commissioned initia ...

. Mazzocchi was a friend of

Francesco Scipione Maffei Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was an Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...

, Jacopo Facciolati and Ludovico Antonio Muratori. He was a member of several learned societies, including the Accademia Ercolanese and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Mazzocchi made significant contributions to the field of

biblical criticism Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...

(''Spicilegium Biblicum'', 3 vols., 1763).

Works

* ''In mutilum Campani Amphitheatri titulum, aliasque nonnullas Campanas Inscriptiones Commentarius'', published in Naples in 1727 and reissued in the fifth volume of Giovanni Poleni's ''Utriusque Thesauri Antiquitatum Nova Supplementa''; * * Mazzocchi published several other philological and archeological dissertations, among whom one in Italian, on the origin of the Tyrrhenians, published in the third volume of the Acts of the Etruscan Academy of Cortona. He published also an improved edition of

Vossius Vossius may refer to: * Gerardus Vossius (1577–1649), a Dutch humanist * Dionysius Vossius (1612–1633), a Dutch translator, son of Gerardus Vossius * Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), a Dutch scholar, son of Gerardus Vossius * Vossius Gymnasium ...

' ''Etymologicon linguae Latinae'' (Naples, 1762) and dissertations on

Hebrew poetry Hebrew poetry is poetry written in the Hebrew language. It encompasses such things as: * Biblical poetry, the poetry found in the poetic books of the Hebrew Bible * Piyyut, religious Jewish liturgical poetry in Hebrew or Aramaic * Medieval Hebrew ...

and on the Antiquities of the Roman Campagna. He left besides, in manuscript, a book on the origin of the city of Capua.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzocchi, Alessio 1684 births 1771 deaths Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Italian philologists Italian archaeologists Italian biblical scholars People from Santa Maria Capua Vetere Academic staff of the University of Naples Federico II 18th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests