User:The Eternal Wayfarer/Silvio Giuseppe Mercati

Giuseppe Mercati, better known as Silvio Giuseppe Mercati (16 September, 1877 – 16 October, 1963), was an Italian Byzantinist and university professor.

Biography
Born in Villa Gaida near Reggio Emilia, Mercati came from a family of Catholic tradition, the sixth of the seven sons of Domenico and Giuseppina Mercati (née Montipò). His father was a veterinary and built a large family library with the books bought from a nearby monastery, closed in 1859. He had two older brothers, Giovanni (1866 – 1957) and Angelo (1870 – 1955), both of whom became churchmen and well-known scholars of Byzantine and Medieval studies. In particular, Giovanni was made cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1936, and in the same year he was nominated archivist of the Vatican Secret Archive and librarian of the Vatican Library; while Monsignor Angelo was Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archive from 1925. Born and baptized as Giuseppe Silvio, he signed his publications as Silvio Giuseppe Mercati, to distinguish himself from his older brother Giovanni.

In 1896 he obtained his high school diploma, from the Lazzaro Spallanzani Lyceum in Reggio Emilia. He enrolled in Milan's Accademia Scientifico-Letteraria (the predecessor to the current University of Milan) in the same year, studying Humanities and Classics for two semesters (1896-1897). Here he attended Antonio Maria Ceriani's Paleography classes. For the next two semesters, he enrolled in the University of Naples (1897-1898), but he was forced to leave university due to poor health. In 1899-1900 he re-enrolled in university, this time in the University of Rome, and from 1901 to 1905 in the Bologna University, where he finally graduated defending a thesis entitled "Studi sulle versioni greche di Efrem Siro. Contributi alla critica del testo ed alla storia della metrica bizantina antica" ("Studies on Ephrem the Syrian's Greek versions. Contributions to the history of ancient Byzantine metre"). His tutor was Vittorio Puntoni.

While in Bologna, he accepted a post as a substitute teacher in a Christian middle school in the nearby Marola. He then taught classics in the lyceum of Montecassino from 1905 to 1906, when he won a scholarship granted by the Fondazione Villari; he left Italy for Germany, where he stayed from 1907 to 1909, studying with Wilhelm Meyer (in Göttingen) and with Karl Krumbacher (in Munich).

Mercati, who held a proficiency diploma in German language, was lecturer in the subject at the University of Rome from 1916 to 1919, and began teaching Byzantine literature and biblical Greek at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome 1918 to 1924. In the same year he was habilitated to university teaching and became Professor of Greek literature in the University of Catania, but he immediately (1925) moved to the Sapienza University of Rome and became Full Professor of Byzantine history and philology, also teaching Greek paleography and Papyrology. He was the first professor of Byzantine philology in Italy, and retired in 1949.

He formed several disciples in Rome: Vittorio De Marco, Aristide Colonna, Antonio Traglia, Ciro Giannelli (who graduated with Nicola Festa and took Mercati's post in 1949) and Enrica Follieri, Giannelli's successor after his premature death in 1955.

While in Rome, his scientific activity intensified, and Mercati published a long series of papers and articles dealing with a wide range of fields of Byzantine studies: poetry, prose, religion, lexicography, epigraphy, paleography and manuscript studies in general, prosopography, occasionally writing on modern Greek literature. He directed the scientific journal «Studi bizantini e neoellenici» from issue no. 3 (1931) to the 10th (1963) and participated in all the international congresses of the discipline until 1953, when an injury severely limited his mobility; he also was the President of the 5th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, held in Rome. Despite the injury, he continued studying and working until his death and used to go to the Vatican Library almost every day.

He married Oriele Cecconi on 29 March 1913; their childless marriage lasted until her death in 1952. Mercati died in Rome on 16 October of 1963.

Research activity
Mercati was an expert of Byzantine poetry and religious literature. He published several poetical texts and hagiographies, studied Byzantine epigraphy and prosopography, and identified hagiographical and biblical texts in papyri.

Despite his lifelong dedication to textual criticism of Byzantine texts and his extensive studies of Byzantine manuscripts and society, he produced only one monograph, the first volume of his critical edition of the works of Ephraem the Syrian.

Selected publications
Several of his papers are reprinted in