FORCELLINI, Egidio. - A learned priest, born at Campo sul Piave on 26 Aug. 1688, died there on 5 Apr. 1768. He studied at the Seminary of Padua, FACOLTÀ (v.) was his teacher.
In collaboration with his master, he edited the *Calepinus septem linguarum* of Jacopo Surtori, published in Padua in 1708, and between 1718 and 1758 he supervised no fewer than eight editions of it; with the same collaborator he compiled the *Ortografia italiana* (Padua 1718), and at his inspiration he undertook the monumental *Lexicon totius latinitatis*, which the disciple modestly attributed to Facciolati, though it is entirely his own work.
The *Lexicon*, which supplanted the *Thesaurus* of Robert Estienne (v. Estienne), remains a living work, remarkable for its wealth of learning, its dense erudition, and its brilliant arrangement and development. In 1724 Forcellini was appointed prefect of studies at the Seminary of Ceneda, and for seven years he suspended work on the *Lexicon*. But in 1731 he returned to Padua and resumed the task, completing it there. The work, however, was published posthumously in Padua in 1771, with a preface by Gaetano Cognolato (1728–1822). A second edition appeared in 1805; in 1816 Giuseppe Furianetto (1775–1835), another alumnus of the Padua Seminary, issued an *Appendix*; and he also supervised a third edition, published between 1827 and 1831 (the *Appendix* was reprinted in 1841). Between 1839 and 1843 a new reprint was issued at Prato, and a few years later, in the same city, Vincenzo De Vit (1811–92) produced a greatly enlarged edition in six volumes (1838–79), in which patristic lexicography was given prominence and the treatment of onomastic entries was notably expanded. Before the publication of this edition was complete, another edition in four volumes appeared at Padua (1864–98), followed by two volumes of *Onomasticon* (1913–20), edited by Francesco Corradini (1820–88) for the first three volumes and by Giuseppe Perin (1845–1925) for the remainder. A facsimile reprint of this last edition was issued at Padua in 1940.