Egidio Forcellini

Egidio Forcellini (26 August 16885 April 1768) was an Italian philologist.

Biography Forcellini was born at Fener in the district of Treviso and belonged to a very poor family. He went to the seminary at Padua in 1704, studied under Facciolati, and in due course attained the priesthood. From 1724 to 1730 he held the office of rector of the seminary at Ceneda, and from 1731 to 1765 that of father confessor in the seminary of Padua. The remaining years of his life were mainly spent in his native village.

He died at his home in Fener, in the area of Alano di Piave, in 1768, before the completion of the major work on which he had long collaborated with Facciolati. This was the vast Latin Lexicon, which formed the basis of all similar works subsequently published until the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. He was engaged with his Herculean task for nearly thirty-five years, and the transcription of the manuscript by Luigi Violato occupied eight years more.