DE MAGISTRIS, SIMONE. – 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 very young age, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory and devoted himself zealously to the study of ecclesiastical antiquities and Oriental languages, acquiring great expertise and renown in these fields. He was held in high regard 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 he was placed in charge of the Propaganda printing press. In his publications, all anonymous, splendid erudition is not matched by 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 Alexandriini episcopi, cognomento Magni, opera quae supersunt omnia (ibid. 1796); Gli Atti di cinque martiri nella Corea (ibid. 1801). Alberto Vaccari