Niccolò Alemanni (

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

, 12 January 1583 –

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, 1626) was a Roman

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

of Greek origin.

Biography

Alemanni was educated in Rome at the Greek College, founded by

Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII (, , born Ugo Boncompagni; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake ...

, but was ordained deacon and priest according to the Latin rite. After teaching Greek for some time to persons of rank, he was appointed secretary to Cardinal Borghese, and afterwards made custodian of the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

. His death is said to have been caused by too close attendance at the erection of the high altar of St. Peter's, to which honorable duty he had been assigned with orders to see that the sepulchres of the holy martyrs were not interfered with in the course of the work.

Works

Alemanni wrote a ''Syntagma de Lateranensibus parietibus'' (Rome, 1625) on the occasion of restorations carried out in the church of St. John Lateran by his patron, Cardinal Borghese; also a dissertation on the relative importance of the right and left side as exhibited in certain old papal coins that place

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

to the right of St. Peter, ''De dextrae laevaeque manus praerogativa ex antiquis Pontificum nummis Paulum Petro apostolo anteponentibus''. He is known in the history of classical literature as the editor (Lyon, 1623) of the famous ''Anecdota'', or ''Secret History,'' of

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

(call number VAT.Gr.1001), a work that was violently criticized outside of Italy.

References

*
The Secret History of Art by Noah Charney on the Vatican Library and Procopius
An article by art historian Noah Charney about the Vatican Library and its famous manuscript, ''Historia Arcana'' by

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alamanni, Niccolo 1583 births 1626 deaths Librarians from the Papal States 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 17th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Italian librarians Italian people of Greek descent 16th-century Greek writers 16th-century Italian male writers 16th-century Greek educators 17th-century Greek writers 17th-century Greek educators Pontifical Greek College of Saint Athanasius alumni 16th-century Greek male writers