Angelo Mai
Angelo Mai (''Latin''
Angelus Maius; 7 March 17828 September 1854) was an Italian
Cardinal and
philologist. He won a European reputation for publishing for the first time a series of previously unknown ancient texts. These he was able to discover and publish, first while in charge of the
Ambrosian Library in Milan and then in the same role at the
Vatican Library. The texts were often in parchment manuscripts that had been washed off and reused; he was able to read the lower text using chemicals. In particular he was able to locate a substantial portion of the much sought-after ''De Republica'' of
Cicero and the complete works of
Virgilius Maro Grammaticus.
In 1954, to celebrate the first century after his death, the public library of Bergamo, the city where he was from, was named after him Biblioteca civica Angelo Mai e archivi storici.
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