Angelo Mai, an Italian scholar, born near Bergamo, March 7, 1782, died at Albano, Sept. 8, 1854. He entered the novitiate of the society of Jesus, and in 1813 was named an associate of the Ambrosian college, and soon after one of the sixteen attached to the Ambrosian library at Milan. When the society of Jesus was formally revived by Pope Pius VII. in 1814, Mai, who had never taken the solemn vows of the order, was induced to remain a member of the secular clergy. In 1819 he became chief keeper of the Vatican library at Rome, soon after librarian, and in 1825 supernumerary prothonotary apostolic. In 1833 he was appointed secretary of the propaganda, and in 1838 prefect of the congregation of the Index and cardinal. His literary reputation was established by his careful exploration of the Ambrosian library, and by several important discoveries in the then almost unknown department of palimpsests. Among his discoveries in Milan were fragments of the orations of Cicero in defense of Scaurus, Tullius, and Flaccus, and against Clodius (Milan, 1814); several orations of Cornelius Fronto, and several letters of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and of Lucius Verus (Milan, 1815; new ed., Rome, 1846); a fragment of eight orations of Q. Aurelius Symmachus (Milan, 1815; new ed., Rome, 1846); the complete oration of Isaaus on the inheritance of Cleonymus (Milan, 1815); an oration of Themistius (1816); several books of the " Roman Antiquities " of Dionysiusof Hali-carnassus (1816); an Itinerarium Alexandria and a work of Julius Valerius, Res Gestce Alex-andri (1817); fragments of Eusebiusand Philo. and of Eusebius's Chronicorum Canonum Libri duo (1818), which he restored, in conjunction with Dr. Zohrab, from an Armenian manuscript; and fragments of the Iliad from the oldest known manuscripts (Milan, 1819). He also discovered at Rome the long-sought work of Cicero, De Republica (Rome, 1822). As keeper of the Vatican library, Mai resolved to publish collections of the unpublished sacred as well as profane authors from the Vatican manuscripts, similar to those of Muratori, Ma- billon, and Montfaucon, leaving to future; scholars the task of critically editing, com- menting, and translating.

On this plan he prepared the magnificent Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collective Vaticanis Codicibus edita (10 vols. 4to, Rome, 1825-'38), Auctores Classicie Vaticanis Codicibus editi (10 vols. 8vo, 1828-'38), and the Spicilegium Romanum (10 vols., 1839-'44). His last publication, Nova Pair urn Bibliotheca (6 vols., 1845-'53), forms an indispensable supplement to almost all collective editions of the church fathers. He had also prepared an edition of the celebrated Biblical Codex Vaticanus, but died before the completion of the work, which was published by Ver-cellane (Rome, 1857).