Angelo Mai (''Latin'' Angelus Maius; 7 March 17828 September 1854) was an Italian Cardinal and

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

. 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 Ambrosian Library in Milan and then in the same role at the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

. 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 Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the est ...

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 The Province of Bergamo ( it, provincia di Bergamo; lmo, proìnsa de Bèrghem) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,112,187 (2017), an area of , and contains 243 '' comuni''. Its capital is the city of Bergamo ...

, Lombardy. In 1799 he entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, and in 1804 he became a teacher of classics in the college of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. 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 , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(to which he had meanwhile returned) to

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

, where in 1813 he was made custodian of the Ambrosian library. 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

. In 1833 he was transferred to the office of secretary of the

Congregation of the Propaganda A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship * Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...

; on 12 February 1838 he was raised to the dignity of cardinal. He died at

Castel Gandolfo Castel Gandolfo (, , ; la, Castrum Gandulphi), colloquially just Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Caste ...

, near 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.

Works

It is on his skill as a reader of

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scr ...

s that Mai's fame chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong: *fragments of

's ''Pro Scauro'', ''Pro Tullio'', ''Pro Flacco'', ''In Clodium et Curionem'', ''De aere alieno Milonis'', and ''De rege Alexandrino'' (1814) *'' 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 Quintus Aurelius Symmachus signo Eusebius (, ; c. 345 – 402) was a Roman statesman, orator, and man of letters. He held the offices of governor of proconsular Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391. Symmachus ...

*fragments of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...

*the oration of

Isaeus Isaeus ( el, Ἰσαῖος ''Isaios''; fl. early 4th century BC) was one of the ten Attic orators according to the Alexandrian canon. He was a student of Isocrates in Athens, and later taught Demosthenes while working as a '' metic'' logographer ...

' ''De hereditate Cleonymi'' *the last nine books of the ''Antiquities'' of

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style ...

, and a number of other works. *''M Tullii Ciceronis 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 hurchfathers") in 1845-1853 His edition of the celebrated ''

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

'', 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. Although Mai was not as successful in

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mai, Angelo 1782 births 1854 deaths People from Schilpario 19th-century Italian cardinals Former Jesuits Jesuit cardinals Cardinals created by Pope Gregory XVI Italian philologists 19th-century Italian Jesuits