Muratori, Ludovico Antonio

Related Category: Historians, European: Biographies

(ldōvē´kō äntô´nyō mrätô´rē), 1672–1750, Italian historian, a Roman Catholic priest. One of the foremost scholars of his age, he was long archivist and ducal librarian at Modena. He discovered the Muratorian Canon, a scrap of early Christian literature (c.A.D. 190) containing the earliest known list of the New Testament books. Muratori edited the important source collections Rerum Italicarum scriptores (28 vol., 1723–51) and Antiquitates Italicae medii aevii (6 vol., 1738–42). He also wrote a history (12 vol., 1744–49) of Italy from Christian times.