MONACI, ERNESTO. – Philologist and historian, b. at Soriano nel Cimino (Viterbo) on 20 Feb. 1844, d. in Rome on 1 May 1918.
Having graduated in law at Rome in 1865, he soon turned to the study of Roman philology, of which he became one of Italy’s foremost promoters. He taught this discipline at the University of Rome from 1876 to 1918, and from his school emerged accomplished scholars in philological, historical, and palaeographical studies. MONACI’s name is linked to the establishment of several important scholarly enterprises and institutions, such as the Rivista di filologia romana (1872; now Studi romanzi), the Società romana di storia patria (1876), the Archivio paleografico italiano (1884), and the Società filologica romana (1901). Among his numerous writings, particular mention should be made of the Canzoniere portoghese della Biblioteca Vaticana (Imola 1873), the Uffizi drammatici dei disciplinati dell’Umbria (ibid. 1874), drawn from a Vallisecchian codex, the Crestomazia italiana dei primi secoli (Città di Castello 1889–1912), and the Liber vistoriarum Romanorum of the Biblioteca civica in Hamburg (posthumous, Rome 1920).