Giovanni Lami

Who was Giovanni Lami?

Giovanni Lami was an Italian jurist, Church historian, and antiquarian. Born at Santa Croce sull'Arno in 1697, he studied at the University of Pisa and obtained his doctorate of law in 1719. He was the prefect of the Biblioteca Pallavicini at Genoa and later president of the Biblioteca Riccardiana at Florence. He eventually succeeded to a professorship of ecclesiastical history at the University of Florence, and was a court theologian and counsellor to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He died in 1770 and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Croce. His magnum opus was the eighteen-volume Deliciae eruditorum, a "hodge-podge of antiquarian lore" published over a span of decades at Florence. Lami was the first to describe the Byzantine manuscripts Minuscule 201, Minuscule 362, and Minuscule 370. He also wrote a Memorabilia, dedicated to the illustrious men of his time, and many other works of history and philology.