BUONARROTI, Filippo. — Archaeologist, born in Florence in 1661, died there in 1733. Having come to Rome while still young, he gained the favor of Cardinal Carpegna, who appointed him to oversee his library and museum. He published the rich numismatic collection of the latter in an outstanding manner (Rome 1698). In the same year he was named librarian of the Vatican Library, but later, forced to leave Rome, he returned to Florence, where he assembled a museum rich in inscriptions, coins, and ivories.
He rendered meritorious service to Christian antiquities with his book Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure trovati nei cimiteri di Roma (Observations on Some Fragments of Ancient Glass Vessels Ornamented with Figures Found in the Cemeteries of Rome, Rome 1716), in which he discoursed learnedly on ancient garments and customs and especially on the nimbus.