DE MAGISTRIS, SIMONE. - Ecclesiastical scholar, b. at Serra di Scopamene (Corsica) on 28 Feb. 1728, d. at Rome on 6 Oct. 1802. Having come to Rome at a very young age, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory and applied himself ardently to the study of ecclesiastical antiquities and of the Oriental languages, acquiring great expertise and reputation in them. He was dear to the popes Clement XIV and Pius VI, from whom he received important commissions for historical and literary research. In 1791 he was appointed titular bishop of Cyrene, and the following year he was placed in charge of the direction of the Propaganda printing press. In his publications, all anonymous, his wonderful erudition is not matched by his critical judgment.
Writings: Osservazioni sopra d'un libro intitolato : « Dell'origine e del commercio della moneta e dell'istituzione delle zecche in Italia » [by Count Gian Rinaldo Carli] in quanto appartiene alla Zecca pontificia (Rome 1752); P. Josephi Bianchini elogium historicum (ibid. 1764); Daniel secundum Septuaginta ex Tetraplis Origenis nunc primum editus e singulari Chisiano codice (ibid. 1772); Acta martyrum ad Ostia Tiberina sub Claudio Gothico nunc primum graece prodeunt ex ms. codice R. bibliothecae Taurinensis (ibid. 1795); S. Dionysii Alexandrini episcopi, cognomento Magni, opera quae supersunt omnia (ibid. 1796); Gli Atti di cinque martiri nella Corea (ibid. 1801).
Alberto Vaccari