Leo Allatius
Encyclopedia
Leo Allatius (Greek
: Λέων Αλλάτιος, Leon Allatios, Λιωνής Αλάτζης, Lionis Allatzis; Italian
: Leone Allacci, Allacio; Latin: Leo Allatius, Allacius) was a Greek scholar, theologian and keeper of the Vatican library
.
in 1586, his father was Niccolas Allatzes and his mother was Sebaste Neurides, both of Greek extraction. He was taken by his maternal uncle Michael Nauridis to Italy to be educated at the age of nine, first in Calabria
and then in Rome
where he was admitted into the Greek college. A graduate of the Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome
, he spent his career in Rome as teacher of Greek at the Greek college, and devoting himself to the study of classics and theology. He found a patron in Pope Gregory XV
.
In 1622, after the capture of Heidelberg
by Tilly, when the Protestant Elector of Bavaria Frederick V
was supplanted by a Catholic one, the victorious elector Maximilian of Bavaria
presented the splendid Palatinate library composed of 196 cases containing about 3500 manuscripts to Pope Gregory. Allacci supervised its transport by a caravan of 200 mules across the Alps to Rome, where it was incorporated in the Vatican library. All but 39 of the Heidelberg manuscripts, which had been sent to Paris
in 1797 and were returned to Heidelberg at the Peace of Paris in 1815
, and a gift from Pope Pius VII
of 852 others in 1816, remain in the Vatican Library to this day.
Allacci became librarian to Cardinal Francesco Barberini
, and Pope Alexander VII
appointed him custodian of the Vatican Library
in 1661, which post he held until his death.
His cultural background, embracing the Greek and Roman worlds, afforded him a unique view of the age-old question of union to heal the Great Schism
. Better than any western scholar of his day he knew the religious, historical and artistic traditions of the Orthodox world, struggling under Ottoman
domination. More passionately than any other 17th century theologian, he believed that familiarity with these traditions would enable the two churches to bridge their theological and ecclesiastical divide.
Thus in 1651, when he published the first printed edition of the works of George Acropolites, the 13th century emissary of the Byzantine Emperor who acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman pontiff and thus had become something of a celebrity, at least in the West, the Latin essay that formed the preface to this volume, De Georgiis eorumque Scriptis gained fame itself as a learned plea for the commonalities between the two churches.
Allatius was a natural apologist for the Eastern communions
in Eastern Europe
, convinced as he was in himself that in the acts of union neither reasons of faith nor of doctrine were fundamental to the succession of the bishops
, only a transfer of jurisdictions, and he seems really to have believed that the "Latin faith" and the "Greek faith" were identical and that under "Roman obedience" they could still be Orthodox. So he argued in his contribution to the mid-17th century Uniate pamphlet De Ecclesiae occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua consensione libri tres ("The Western and Eastern Churches in perpetual Agreement, in Three Books") (1648). Such notions led to the final stipulations that the Eastern Churches were not to be merged with the Catholic Church but would retain their own hierarchical independence and traditional rituals.
Allatius was trained as a physician
. In 1645 he included the first methodical discussion of vampire
s, in De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks"). In his later years he collected Greek and Syrian manuscripts to add to the late Pope Gregory XV
's Eastern Library at the Vatican.
His Drammaturgia (1666), a catalogue of Italian musical dramas produced up to that year, is indispensable for the early history of opera
. A new edition, carried down to 1755, appeared at Venice in that year.
His works are listed by Johann Albert Fabricius
, in Bibliotheca Graeca (xi. 437), where they are divided into four classes:
His manuscripts (about 150 volumes) and his voluminous scholarly correspondence are in the library of the Oratorians in Rome. The number of his unpublished writings is also very large; the majority of them are included in the manuscripts of the Vallicellian library.
Although undoubtably learned, Allatius held some odd ideas. One of his works, Die Praeputio Domine Nosri Jesu Christi Diatriba, (or; A Discussion of the Foreskin of Our Lord Jesus Christ) contended that the rings observed around Saturn were the prepuce of Jesus Christ.
Allatius died in Rome
on 18 (or 19) January 1669.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Λέων Αλλάτιος, Leon Allatios, Λιωνής Αλάτζης, Lionis Allatzis; Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
: Leone Allacci, Allacio; Latin: Leo Allatius, Allacius) was a Greek scholar, theologian and keeper of the Vatican library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
.
Biography
Leo Allatius was a Greek, born on the island of ChiosChios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
in 1586, his father was Niccolas Allatzes and his mother was Sebaste Neurides, both of Greek extraction. He was taken by his maternal uncle Michael Nauridis to Italy to be educated at the age of nine, first in Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
and then in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
where he was admitted into the Greek college. A graduate of the Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, he spent his career in Rome as teacher of Greek at the Greek college, and devoting himself to the study of classics and theology. He found a patron in Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV , born Alessandro Ludovisi, was pope from 1621, succeeding Paul V on 9 February 1621...
.
In 1622, after the capture of Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
by Tilly, when the Protestant Elector of Bavaria Frederick V
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia ....
was supplanted by a Catholic one, the victorious elector Maximilian of Bavaria
Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian I, Duke/Elector of Bavaria , called "the Great", was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign was marked by the Thirty Years' War ....
presented the splendid Palatinate library composed of 196 cases containing about 3500 manuscripts to Pope Gregory. Allacci supervised its transport by a caravan of 200 mules across the Alps to Rome, where it was incorporated in the Vatican library. All but 39 of the Heidelberg manuscripts, which had been sent to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1797 and were returned to Heidelberg at the Peace of Paris in 1815
Treaty of Paris (1815)
Treaty of Paris of 1815, was signed on 20 November 1815 following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. In February, Napoleon had escaped from his exile on Elba; he entered Paris on 20 March, beginning the Hundred Days of his restored rule. Four days after France's defeat in the...
, and a gift from Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII , born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was a monk, theologian and bishop, who reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to 20 August 1823.-Early life:...
of 852 others in 1816, remain in the Vatican Library to this day.
Allacci became librarian to Cardinal Francesco Barberini
Francesco Barberini (seniore)
Francesco Barberini was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. The nephew of Pope Urban VIII , he benefited immensely from the nepotism practiced by his uncle...
, and Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.- Early life :Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V , he was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from...
appointed him custodian of the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
in 1661, which post he held until his death.
His cultural background, embracing the Greek and Roman worlds, afforded him a unique view of the age-old question of union to heal the Great Schism
East-West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
. Better than any western scholar of his day he knew the religious, historical and artistic traditions of the Orthodox world, struggling under Ottoman
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
domination. More passionately than any other 17th century theologian, he believed that familiarity with these traditions would enable the two churches to bridge their theological and ecclesiastical divide.
Thus in 1651, when he published the first printed edition of the works of George Acropolites, the 13th century emissary of the Byzantine Emperor who acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman pontiff and thus had become something of a celebrity, at least in the West, the Latin essay that formed the preface to this volume, De Georgiis eorumque Scriptis gained fame itself as a learned plea for the commonalities between the two churches.
Allatius was a natural apologist for the Eastern communions
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, convinced as he was in himself that in the acts of union neither reasons of faith nor of doctrine were fundamental to the succession of the bishops
Apostolic Succession
Apostolic succession is a doctrine, held by some Christian denominations, which asserts that the chosen successors of the Twelve Apostles, from the first century to the present day, have inherited the spiritual, ecclesiastical and sacramental authority, power, and responsibility that were...
, only a transfer of jurisdictions, and he seems really to have believed that the "Latin faith" and the "Greek faith" were identical and that under "Roman obedience" they could still be Orthodox. So he argued in his contribution to the mid-17th century Uniate pamphlet De Ecclesiae occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua consensione libri tres ("The Western and Eastern Churches in perpetual Agreement, in Three Books") (1648). Such notions led to the final stipulations that the Eastern Churches were not to be merged with the Catholic Church but would retain their own hierarchical independence and traditional rituals.
Allatius was trained as a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. In 1645 he included the first methodical discussion of vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
s, in De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks"). In his later years he collected Greek and Syrian manuscripts to add to the late Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV , born Alessandro Ludovisi, was pope from 1621, succeeding Paul V on 9 February 1621...
's Eastern Library at the Vatican.
His Drammaturgia (1666), a catalogue of Italian musical dramas produced up to that year, is indispensable for the early history of opera
Origins of Opera
The word "opera" means "work" in Italian suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle...
. A new edition, carried down to 1755, appeared at Venice in that year.
His works are listed by Johann Albert Fabricius
Johann Albert Fabricius
Johann Albert Fabricius was a German classical scholar and bibliographer.-Biography:Fabricius was born at Leipzig, son of Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St. Paul at Leipzig, who was the author of several works, the most important being Deliciae Harmonicae...
, in Bibliotheca Graeca (xi. 437), where they are divided into four classes:
- editions, translations and commentaries on ancient authors
- works relating to the dogmas and institutions of the Greek and Roman Churches
- historical works
- miscellaneous works.
His manuscripts (about 150 volumes) and his voluminous scholarly correspondence are in the library of the Oratorians in Rome. The number of his unpublished writings is also very large; the majority of them are included in the manuscripts of the Vallicellian library.
Although undoubtably learned, Allatius held some odd ideas. One of his works, Die Praeputio Domine Nosri Jesu Christi Diatriba, (or; A Discussion of the Foreskin of Our Lord Jesus Christ) contended that the rings observed around Saturn were the prepuce of Jesus Christ.
Allatius died in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on 18 (or 19) January 1669.
External links
- American School of Classical Studies website: biography of Allatius
- Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908: Leon Allatius