ANTONIOLI, CARLO

ANTONIOLI, CARLO. - Piarist man of letters, b. at Correggio (Modena) on 2 Sept. 1728, d. at Pisa on 1 Nov. 1800. While still very young he was sent to Pisa at the request of Edoardo Corsini, his teacher and professor at that University, and in 1752 he was appointed instructor of logic there; upon the death of Fr. Corsini, while retaining the chair of philosophy, he became professor of Greek literature, to which was added the chair of Latin language. He held both these posts until his death. His Latin orations, still unpublished, delivered each year at the reopening of the University of Pisa, were exceedingly celebrated: orations full of splendour, nobility, and elegance. He also possessed a very great knowledge of Greek, to which he rendered notable service by publishing a most useful anthology and that excellent grammar to which so many Hellenists owe their training. He also wrote learnedly on philology and antiquities, and had to sustain scholarly controversies in defence of his confrère Corsini. Praised by the greatest contemporary men of letters, he “joined great learning to rare goodness; modesty hindered him from attaining glory,” as G. B. Niccolini said of him.