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Mittarelli, Nicolas-Jacques

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Mitternacht, Johann Sebastian

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(also known as JEANBENOIT) an Italian theologian and bibliographer, and a learned historian, was born at Venice September 2, 1707. At an early age he entered the order of the Camaldulcs, and prosecuted his theological studies at Florence and at Rome, where he secured the friendship of the cardinal Rezzonico, subsequently Clement XIV. Appointed to the professorship of philosophy, and afterwards to that of theology, in the convent of Saint-Michel, at Murano, near Venice, Mittarelli banished from his teaching the scholastic method, and all the idle questions to which it gives rise. Nine years later he was sent to Treviso as confessor to the monastery of Saint-Parisio; here he was occupied in arranging the archives of that house, acquired a taste for ecclesiastical antiquities, and gave himself to researches in this direction. His nomination in 1747 to the office of chancellor of his order gave him the opportunity of visiting the libraries and archives of a great number of convents. He then conceived the idea of writing a history of his congregation. The renown. which this well- executed enterprise gained for him caused his election in 1760 as abbot of the convent of Saint-Michel at Murano. and in 1765 as general of his order. In 1770 he resumed the government of the monastery of Saint- Michel, which he kept until his death. He died August 14, 1777. Endowed with a prodigious memory and a nice critical sense, Mittarelli acquired a thorough knowledge of Italian ecclesiastical history. To all the virtues he united an exemplary modesty, which manly times caused him to refuse the honors offered him. From his pen we have Memnoie della vida di S.Parisio, monaco Camaldolesee del monastero de SS.-Cristina e Parisio di Treviso (Venice, 1748, 8vo): — Memorie del monastero delta S.- Trinita di Faenza (Faenza, 1749, 8vo): — Annales Camaldulenses, quibus plura inseruntur tumn cceteras Italico-monzasticas res, tum historiam ecclesiasticam remque diplomaticam illustrantia (Venice, 1755-1773, 9 volumes, fol.); this important work, drawn up after the model of the Annales ordinis. S.-Benedicti of Mabillon, extends to the year 1764: — Ad Scriptores rerum Italicarum Cl. Muratorii accessiones historiae Faventinae (Venice, 1771, fol.): De Litteratura Faventinorum (Venice, 1775, fol.): Bibliotheca codicum manuscriptorum monasterii S. Michaelis de Muriano Venetiarum, cum appendiae librorum impressorum saeculi xv (Venice, 1769, fol.). See Fabroni, Vitae Italorum; Tipaldo, Biographia degli Italiani illustri, 10:140; Jagemann, Magazin der italianischen Literatur, volume 4; Hirsching, Histor.-liter. Handbuch.