ANNIUS of VITERBO (properly NANNI, GIOVANNI, in Humanist style Annius: "Frater Ioannes Annius Viterbensis"). — A Dominican scholar, one of the most controversial figures of the Renaissance, born at Viterbo in 1432, died at Rome on 13 November 1502. He took the Dominican habit in the Viterbese convent of Santa Maria de’ Gradi. Besides philosophical and theological studies, he mastered classical letters and Oriental languages. In 1464 he lectured as bachelor on the Sentences at the University of Florence. In 1498 he was cured of an illness through the intercession of the Blessed Colomba of Rieti. Sixtus IV and Alexander VI held him in high esteem. He served as Master of the Sacred Palace from 1499 until his death and was buried at the Minerva in Rome.
His exegetical and controversial works include: 1) *In universa sacra Biblia commentaria* (unpublished); 2) *Tractatus de imperio Turcarum*, a sermon preached at Genoa in 1473; 3) *De futuris christianorum triumphis in Saracenos*, a “historical” interpretation of the Apocalypse (after editions at Genoa 1480 and Leipzig 1481, many others appeared, notably under the title *Glossa sive expositio super Apocalypsin de statu Ecclesiae ab a. 1481 usque in finem mundi*, Cologne 1507). In the first part he expounds the Apocalypse up to chapter 15 and discusses whether Muhammad was the Antichrist; in the second he continues the commentary from chapter 16 (covering the fall of Constantinople to the end of the fifteenth century); in the third he abridges his treatise *De imperio Turcarum*; 4) *Quaestiones super multo iudicio et civili* (Cremona 1494).
Annius became famous for his alleged discoveries of ancient historians, published in the *Vetustissimi auctores* or *Antiquitatum variarum volumina XVII*, editions with commentary *Super opera diversorum auctorum*, Rome 1498, Paris 1512, Antwerp 1545 and 1552; editions containing only the ancient authors’ texts, Venice 1498, Paris 1510, Basel 1530 and 1599, Wittenberg 1612. This collection supplies texts and fragments of Berosus, Myrsilus, Cato, Archilochus, Metasthenes, Philo, Xenophon, Sempronius, Manetho and others.
Admiration and wonder at first gave way to doubts and criticism, especially in Italy. Lefèvre d’Étaples, Vives, Cano (*De locis theologicis*, book 11, chap. 6), Voss, and in our own century Pastor (vol. 3 [Italian trans.], pp. 502, 748) and Fueter judged him a fraud and forger. Tiraboschi (vol. 6, part 2, bk. 3, chap. 1, no. 12 ff.) remarks: “One can only dispute whether Giovanni Annio should be regarded as an impostor or merely as too credulous and deceived.” Leandro Alberti, Antonio de Guevara in his commentary on Habakkuk 3:13, and Tommaso Mazza (*Apologia per Giove Annio Viterbese*, Verona 1673) defended him. Others, such as Taurisano, deny that he intended to deceive. In any case, Annio cannot be acquitted of excessive credulity (Echard, Stahl, s.V. in *Kirchenlexikon*, vol. 1, 1882). He did incorporate spurious passages already known and found in libraries before his time (Le Quien), rather than inventing all the documents he published out of whole cloth.
In biblical exegesis Annio is remembered for having been the first to argue resolutely (Antiq. var., bk. 14: *Chronographia Philonis*, fol. 101 sqq.) that Luke 3:23 sqq. gives the genealogy of the Blessed Virgin Mary, thereby resolving the discrepancy between the genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.