CALEPINO, Ambrogio. — Of the family of the counts of Calepino, born in Calepino (Bergamo) around 1440 and died in 1510 or 1511. Augustinian friar of vast erudition; he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
He did not neglect, moreover, to apply himself also to the sciences. He devoted almost his entire life to the compilation of the well-known *Dictionarium*, to which he initially gave the title *Cornucopia* and which was first published in 1502 in Reggio Emilia. This dictionary was later called the *Calepino* and had a more precisely encyclopedic character. Within half a century, that is, from 1542 to 1592, it was published 18 times by a single publisher. The most important editions were that of Basel in 1590 in two languages and that edited by Jacopo Facciolati in seven languages, published in Pavia in 1718, which was later reproduced in many subsequent editions. C.’s work was expanded by Passerat, Luigi de la Cerda, and Chifflet.