Leonardo Antonelli (M / Italy, 1730-1811), scholar

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Leonardo Antonelli

Leonardo Antonelli (1730-1811) was an Italian Cardinal, scholar, archaeologist, protector of letters. In his library (one of the richest in Rome at the time)[1] he possessed a copy of the Ethiopic text of 1 Enoch, one of only 4 manuscripts available in Europe at the end of the 18th cent. The provenience of the manuscript is unknown. In 1775 Antonelli asked the orientalist Agostino Antonio Giorgi to examine the manuscript; Giorgi recognized the importance of the text, but no printed edition or translation were made. Shortly after Antonelli's death, the manuscript was purchased by Angelo Mai and became part of the collections of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

Notes

  1. A description of the library is provided by his librarian Francesco Cancellieri in his book: Il mercato, il lago dell'acqua vergine ed il palazzo panfiliano nel Circo Agonale detto volgarmente Piazza Navona (Roma: Francesco Bourlié, 1811), pp. 140-41.

Biography