MALVESTITI, MAURIZIO. - Franciscan, b. at Verolanuova (Brescia) on 17 Feb. 1778, d. at Brescia on 25 March 1865. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1794, at the Napoleonic suppression of 1797 he moved to Ferrara and there was ordained a priest in 1800. A lecturer in the convent of Aracoeli from 1801, between 1806 and 1807 he became acquainted with Prince Lucien Bonaparte, who obtained from Pius VII that M. should be tutor to his children.
He took part in the turbulent events of Lucien's life, following him in 1810 to England and then until his death in 1840. On the excavations at Lucien's villa at Canino (Viterbo), begun in 1826, M. wrote 4 vols., Museum étrusque de Lucien Bonaparte, Viterbo 1826-29. In 1837, having become chronologer general of the Order, he worked on the preparation of a new volume of the Chronologia historico-legalis, which he did not carry to completion. In 1847 he was elected provincial minister of Lombardy-Venetia and negotiated, in 1849, the surrender of Brescia at the end of the Ten Days. In 1850 Pius IX appointed him definitor general. In 1853 he was made Commissary of the Holy Land for Lombardy-Venetia, and in 1856 he was charged with carrying to Napoleon III the embassy of the Custody of the Holy Land in order to obtain the protection of France, and on that occasion he founded the Commissariat of Paris. A man of great culture, he also devoted himself to the natural sciences and to music, carrying out studies particularly on Hebrew music.
Bibliography2 works
Alberto Ghinato