Muratori

A distinguished archaeologist, born at Vignola, October 21, 1672. Though he took orders at an early age, his time was principally given to historical and antiquarian research, being appointed, when twenty-three years of age, director of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Here he published a collection of hitherto unedited Greek and Latin fragments, Anecdota Graeca and Anecdota Latina. In 1700 he was placed in charge of the great D'Este Library and of the ducal archives at Modena. In 1723 he began to publish his first collection, entitled Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, the twenty-eighth and last volume of which appeared in 1723. Most important to classical scholars is his collection of inscriptions, in six volumes, which appeared between 1739 and 1743, supplanting the collections of Gruter and earlier epigraphists. He died at Modena, January 28, 1750. See his life by G. F. Muratori (Omer, 1758).