Augusto Marinoni (

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

, 15 June 1911 – Legnano, 31 December 1997) was professor of

romance philology Romance studies or Romance philology ( an, filolochía romanica; ca, filologia romànica; french: romanistique; eo, latinida filologio; it, filologia romanza; pt, filologia românica; ro, romanistică; es, filología románica) is an acade ...

at the

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (English: ''Catholic University of the Sacred Heart'', colloquially the ''Catholic University of Milan''), known as UCSC or UNICATT or simply Cattolica, is an Italian private research university founded in 19 ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, a member of the '' Commissione Vinciana'' and the

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

. He is considered one of the greatest scholars of

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

Biografy

After completing his classical studies, he enrolled at the

where in 1933 he obtained a degree in

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

.Ferrarini, p. 193. Thanks to the study in

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

, begun during the preparation of the thesis and continued later, Marinoni was able to identify the genesis, which has its roots in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, of the

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

. In 1936 he obtained a chair of Italian and Latin at the Vittorio Veneto High School in Milan. In these years he began studying

, thanks to his knowledge in the lexicographic field. His work in fact initially focused on the eight thousand words contained in the

Codex Trivulzianus The Codex Trivulzianus is a manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci that originally contained 62 sheets, but today only 55 remain. It documents Leonardo's attempts to improve his modest literary education, through long lists of learned words copied from a ...

, and the result of his studies was published by Giovanni Treccani while Marinoni was a prisoner of war (1943-1946) following his participation in the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

on the front of the North Africa. He resumed his studies on Leonardo in 1952, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the genius from Vinci. Thanks to the quality of his work he received the applause of the adherents to a congress of Leonardo scholars that took place in Paris in the same year. In 1958 he was appointed dean of the liceo scientifico of Legnano. Two years later, thanks to Marinoni's initiative, in Legnano a liceo classico with gymnasium was opened in Legnano. Also in 1958 he began to collaborate with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, where he taught

until 1981. In 1968 he was appointed by

Giuseppe Saragat Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician who served as the president of Italy from 1964 to 1971. Early life Born to Sardinian parents, he was a member of the Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922), Unita ...

, President of the Italian Republic, member of the Ministerial Commission for the edition of the Manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. In this commission Marinoni worked on the study, translation and description of the Vincian codes preserved in Italy, namely the

, the

Codex Atlanticus The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was us ...

and the Codex on the Flight of Birds. Thanks to this immense work, Marinoni published from the seventies all 14 volumes of the codes in question. In 1972 began the cooperation with Ladislao Reti on the transliteration of the Códices Madrid I-II, discovered in the Spanish capital. In 1974 he dealt with the dissemination of these codes, which were published in seven languages by MacGraw Hill. Thanks to the quality of his work, Marinoni is considered the greatest connoisseur of the

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and the greatest expert of the philosophical and scientific thought of Leonardo. Marinoni continued his studies on Leonardo da Vinci and continued his popular activity, also holding seminars in various European and world cities. In 1982 he published a synoptic on the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci named ''Tavola dei Codici Leonardeschi'' where Marinoni highlighted Leonardo's debt to the mathematician

Luca Pacioli Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (sometimes ''Paccioli'' or ''Paciolo''; 1447 – 19 June 1517) was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and an early contributor to the field now known as accounting ...

and the copy of the treatise ''De ponderibus'' written by Blasius of Parma. Many companies, such as

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and IBM, helped publish his work and many world-class cultural institutions invited him to hold seminars and meetings. We owe to Marinoni the creation of the first CD-ROM with multimedia content on Leonardo da Vinci. He studied and in 1977 disclosed the contents of the Codex Forster, preserved at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and of the Codex Ashburnham, kept at the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1982 he was appointed president of the ''Commissione Vinciana'' Authority of Milan, which still brings together the greatest Italian and foreign scholars of Leonardo da Vinci. Among the awards he received, the ''Hammer "for excellence"'', obtained by the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, in 1987, should be mentioned. Augusto Marinoni also studied in depth the history of his city, Legnano, and his dialect. The municipal library of Legnano is named after Augusto Marinoni, which is housed inside Villa Bernocchi.

Selected publications

* ''Leonardo the Scientist''. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980. (With

Carlo Zammattio Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

and

Anna Maria Brizio Anna Maria Brizio (1902-1982)Brizio Anna Maria.
Lombardia Beni Culturali. Re ...

)

Citations

References

* (In Italian) Gabriella Ferrarini, Marco Stadiotti, ''Legnano. Una città, la sua storia, la sua anima'', Telesio editore, 2001. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marinoni, Augusto 1911 births 1997 deaths People from Legnano 20th-century Italian historians Italian Latinists Italian lexicographers Leonardo da Vinci scholars 20th-century lexicographers Italian prisoners of war in World War II Academic staff of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore