FORCELLINI, EGIDIO. - Learned priest, b. at Campo sul Piave on 26 Aug. 1688, d. there on 5 Apr. 1768. He studied at the Seminary of Padua, and was a pupil of Jacopo Facciolati (v.).
In collaboration with his master he revised the Calepinus septem linguarum of Jacopo Sartori, published at Padua in 1708, preparing, between 1718 and 1758, as many as 8 editions of it; with the same he compiled the Oriografia italiana (Padua 1718), and at his inspiration composed the monumental Lexicon totius latinitatis, which the disciple modestly attributed to Facciolati, but which is instead entirely his own work.
The Lexicon, which completely supplanted the Thesaurus of Robert Estienne (v. ESTIENNE), is a work still vital today, remarkable in bulk, dense with erudition, ingenious in its conception and development. F., called in 1724 to the post of prefect of studies at the Seminary of Ceneda, interrupted work on it for 7 years. But having returned to Padua in 1731 he took it up again and brought it to completion. Nevertheless the work appeared posthumously at Padua in 1771, with a preface by Gaetano Cognolato (1728-1802). In 1805 came the 2nd edition; in 1816 an Appendix by Giuseppe Furlanetto (1775-1850), another pupil of the Seminary of Padua, was published; this same man prepared a 3rd ed. of it, which appeared between the years 1827 and 1831 (the Appendix was reprinted in 1841). Between 1839 and 1845 a new reprint saw the light at Prato, and a few years later, in the same city, Vincenzo De Vit (1811-92) prepared a new enlarged edition, in 6 vols. (1858-79), in which prominence was also given to patristic lexicography and the entries on onomastics were considerably developed. Even before its publication was finished, another edition appeared at Padua, in
(Int. Geb. Int. 1883)
FORCELLINI, EGIDIO - Portrait (18th century). Padua, Seminary.
4 vols. (1864-98), plus two of Onomasticus (1913-20), edited by Francesco Corradini (1820-88) for the first 3 vols., and by Giuseppe Perin (1855-1925) for the others. Of this last, an anastatic reproduction was produced, published in Padua in 1940.
Bibliography4 works
Alessandro Pratesi