Egidio Forcellini

Portrait from Alfred Gudeman's Imagines philologorum after an engraving from a British edition of Totius Latinitatis lexicon from 1825.

Forcellini's Lexicon in one reprint.

Egidio Forcellini (Latinized Aegidius Forcellini ; born August 26, 1688 in Fener or in Campo, today to Alano di Piave ; † April 5, 1768 ibid) was an Italian philologist and lexicographer .

Egidio Forcellini came from a poor background. In 1704 he entered the seminary in Padua . There he quickly caught the eye of the slightly older Jacobo Facciolati because of his skills and he worked on his lexical work, namely a revised new edition of Cornelius Schrevelius ' Lexicon manuale Graeco-Latinum et Latino-Graecum as well as Ambrosius Calepinus ' Dictionarium Latinum . This work stimulated Forcellini to consider a Latin lexicon, which is based on the Italian dictionary of the Accademia della Crusca . In 1718 he began to work on his Totius Latinitatis Lexicon , the lexicon of the entire Latinity . In the period that followed, the work was repeatedly interrupted by other obligations of a church or priestly nature. In 1724 he became professor of rhetoric at the seminary in Ceneda and headed it until 1731. The lexicon was finally available in 1761 in fair copy. Forcellini, who died in 1768, did not live to see the publication in 1771. The lexicon was of outstanding importance. It has been reprinted, expanded, supplemented and translated several times . It is considered to be one of the most important precursors of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae . His brother Marco Forcellini was a poet.

expenditure

• Totius Latinitatis lexicon, consilio et cura Jacobi Facciolati opera et studio Aegidii Forcellini, lucubratum. 4 volumes, Typis Seminarii, Padua 1771 ( digitized version ).
• Totius Latinitatis lexicon, consilio et cura Jacobi Facciolati opera et studio Aegidii Forcellini lucubratum. In hac tertia editione auctum et emendatum a Josepho Furlanetto. 4 volumes, Typis Seminarii, Padua 1827–1831.
• Totius latinitatis lexicon, opera et studio Aegidii Forcellini lucubratum. Et in hac editione post tertiam auctam et emendatam a Josepho Furlanetto alumno seminarii patavini. Novo ordine digestum amplissime auctum atque emendatum cura et studio Vincentii De Vit. Typis Aldinianis, Prati 1858–1879.
• Lexicon totius latinitatis J. Facciolati, Aeg. Forcellini et J. Furlanetti seminarii patavini alumnorum cura, opera et studio lucubratum nunc dedmum juxta opera R. Klotz, G. Freund, L. Doderlein aliorumque recentiorum auctius, emendatius melioremque in formam redactum curante doct. Francisco Corradini ejesdem seminarii alumno. Typis Seminarii, Padua 1896.

literature

• Gerardo Bianco:  Forcellini, Egidio. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 48:  Filoni-Forghieri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1997.
• Marcus Beck: Forcellini, Egidio. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 408-410.

Web links

Commons : Egidio Forcellini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Egidio Forcellini in the Catholic Encyclopedia