Giulio Lorenzo Selvaggio (b.

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, 10 August 1728; d. Naples, November, 1772) was a

canonist Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Biography

Giulio Lorenzo Selvaggio entered the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

of Naples in 1744, and was ordained priest in 1752. He subsequently devoted himself to the study of history, philosophy, and the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

. He became censor of books and synodal examiner for the

archdiocese of Naples The Archdiocese of Naples (; ); ) is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in southern Italy, the see being in Naples. A Christian community was founded there in the 1st century AD and the diocese of Naples was raised to the level of an Ar ...

, and wrote the notes for the Italian edition of the ecclesiastical history of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

historian, Johann Lorenz Mosheim. Appointed professor of

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

in 1764, he published ''Institutionum canonicarum libri tres'' (

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

, 1770) and conferences in civil law, interesting from the standpoint of contemporary Neapolitan law. Thomas Maria Mamachi's work on Christian antiquities being unfinished, Selvaggio resolved to deal with the same subject in a smaller work, but he died before finishing it. His friend, Canon Kalephati, continued the publication of the ''Antiquitatum ecclesiasticarum institutiones'' (6 vols., Naples, 1772-6), prefacing them with a biography of the author: ''Commentarius de vita et scriptis J. L. Selvagii''.

References

;Attribution *. Cites: **HURTER, Nomenclator, III (Innsbruck, 1895), 172-4. Italian archaeologists 1728 births 1772 deaths {{archaeologist-stub