GIOVANNI CANAPARIO. — Historian. Of a noble Roman family, b. around the middle of the 10th century, he spent his youth amid worldly pursuits and the study of the classics. In 1000–1001 he became a monk in the monastery of SS. Alessio and Bonifacio on the Aventine, where, after the death of Abbot Leone, he was elected to succeed him. He died on 12 October 1004.
At the request of the Emperor Ottone III, a few years after the martyrdom, he wrote the life of St. Alberto, bishop of Prague: a work of great historical and literary value.
BIBL.: Life of St. Adalbert, edited by G. H. Pertz in MGH. Scriptores, IV, pp. 581–595; Manitius, II, pp. 229–231; F. Novati and A. Monteverdi, Le origini, Milan 1925, pp. 259–260; W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, I, Tübingen 1948, p. 47; II, ibid. 1949, p. 338. Ulderico Vicentini