Elpidio Mioni

Elpidio Mioni (8 October 1911 – 6 September 1991) was an Italian palaeographer, Byzantinist and librarian, Professor of Greek Paleography at the University of Padua.

Biography Born in Bassano del Grappa, Mioni studied classics at the university of Padua and graduated, tutored by Manara Valgimigli, in 1934, specializing in Classical Philology in 1936. Loyal to his family's catholic and anti-fascist values, he was an active member of the federation of Italian Catholic university students (FUCI) and joined the Italian resistance movement to fight the Nazi occupation of Italy at the end of WWII. He was nominated adjunct Professor in Ancient Christian Literature (1958–1960), Byzantine philology (1960–1967) and Greek Palaeography (1960–1974) at the University of Padua.

Research Activity Mioni was primarily a Byzantinist, a palaeographer and a librarian. As a librarian and palaeographer, his major contributions were his cataloguing of Greek manuscripts held in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice and in other Italian libraries. He also wrote monographs on manuscripts of Aristotle's works in the Biblioteca Marciana and on Greek manuscripts in Veneto libraries, as well as a shorthand manual of Greek palaeography.

At the same time, he studied late antique and Byzantine literature, focusing on hagiography and hymnography. He wrote a critical study on the 6th century hymnwriter Romanos the Melodist and studied the manuscript tradition and the style of his kontakia; more broadly, he wrote critical essays on Byzantine hymns and ascetic works, including the Spiritual Meadow. He also studied the manuscript tradition of the Greek Anthology, the manuscript tradition of Strabo, the life and cultural entourage of Bessarion and his books, and wrote his biography (which he left unfinished).

Additionally, he wrote several entries for the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, and the article on John Moschus for the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité.

Bibliography (selection)

Books and catalogues

— This is a revised and enlarged edition of .

Catalogues of Greek Manuscripts

Biblioteca Marciana

Greek manuscripts in Italian libraries

Articles

— With a note by H(enri) G(régoire).

— Unfinished due to Mioni's death.

Obituaries