MONACI, ERNESTO. - Philologist and historian, b. at Soriano nel Cimino (Viterbo) on 20 Feb. 1844, d. at Rome on 1 May 1918.
Having graduated in law at Rome in 1865, he soon turned to Romance philology, of which he was one of the foremost promoters in Italy. He taught this discipline at the University of Rome from 1876 to 1918, and his school produced distinguished scholars in philological, historical, and palaeographical studies. The name of E. M. is associated with the establishment of several important scholarly undertakings and institutions, such as the Rivista di filologia romanza (1872: now Studi romanzi); the Società romana di storia patria (1876); the Archivio
paleografico italiano (1884); and the Società filologica romana (1901). Among M.’s numerous writings, special 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 Vallicellian codex; the Crestomazia italiana dei primi secoli (Città di Castello 1889–1912); and the Liber ystoriarum Romanorum of the Biblioteca civica of Hamburg (posthumous, Rome 1920).