Giuseppe BALESTRI. — Coptologist and Augustinian biblical scholar, b. Dec. 2, 1866 at Vernio (Florence), d. Apr. 29, 1939. His definitive mentor was Fr. Agostino Ciasca (q.v.), whose influence shaped his career. Ordained priest in 1889, he taught for over twenty years Oriental languages, theology, philosophy, and Sacred Scripture to his younger confreres. He was numbered among the first consultors of the Biblical Commission in 1902. Within his Order he served as First General Assistant.
More than to the numerous articles in the journal Bessarione, Balestri owes his reputation as a coptologist to the work Scarronni Bibliorum fragmenta copto-sahidica Musaei Borgiani, III, Rome 1904, which completes the two earlier volumes by Ciasca, and to the edition, in collaboration with Hyvernat, of Scriptores Coptici, I-II, Paris 1907-1908, in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. As a biblical scholar he gained fame for Biblicae Introductionis Generalis Elementa, Rome 1932.