GIOVANNI DI CANAPARIO. - Historian. Of a noble Roman family, he was born around the middle of the 10th century. He spent his youth amid worldly distractions and the study of the classics. In the years 1000-1001 he became a monk in the monastery of SS. Alessio and Bonifacio on the Aventine, where, after the death of Abbot Leo, he was elected to succeed him. He died on 12 October 1004.
At the desire of Emperor Otto III, he wrote the life of St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, a few years after the martyrdom: a work of great historical and literary value.
BIBL.: Vita s. Adalberti, ed. G. H. Pertz in MGH. Scriptores, IV, pp. 581-95; Manitius, II, pp. 229-31; F. Novati and A. Monteverdi, Le origini, Milano 1925, pp. 259-60; W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, I, Tübingen 1948, p. 47; II, ibid. 1949, p. 338. Ulderico Vicentini