DE MAGISTRIS, SIMONE

SIMONE DE MAGISTRIS. — Ecclesiastical scholar, born at Serra di Scopamene (Corsica) on 28 February 1728, died in Rome on 6 October 1802. Having come to Rome at a young age, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory and devoted himself with zeal to the study of ecclesiastical antiquities and Oriental languages, acquiring great skill and reputation in these fields. He was beloved by 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 was put in charge of directing the printing press of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In his publications, all of which were anonymous, his erudition is remarkable, though his critical judgment does not always match II.
Writings: Osservazioni sopra d'un libro intitolato: «Del' 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. Iosephi Bianchini elogium historicum (ibid. 1764); Daniel secundum Septuaginta ex Tetrapolis Origenis nunc primum editus e singulari Chisiano codice (ibid. 1772); Acta martyrum ad Ostia Tiberina sub Claudio Gothico nunc primum graece produnt 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