Banduri, Anselmo
Banduri, Anselmo
Archaeologist and numismatologist, b. 1671 at Ragusa, off the coast of Dalmatia; d. at Paris, 4 January, 1743. He joined the Benedictines at an early age, studied at Naples, and was eventually sent to Florence, then a flourishing centre of higher studies. Here he made the acquaintance of the famous Benedictine scholar Montfaucon, then travelling in Italy, in search of manuscripts for his edition of the works of St. John Chrysostom. Banduri rendered him valuable services and in return was recommended to Duke Cosmo III as a proper titular for the chair of ecclesiastical history in the University of Pavia. It was also suggested that the young Benedictine be sent to Paris for a period of preparation, and especially to acquire a sound critical sense. After a short sojourn at Rome, Banduri arrived at Paris in 1702 and entered the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres, as a pensioner of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He soon became an apt disciple of the French Maurists and began an edition of the anti-iconoclastic writings of Nicephorus of Constantinople, of the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and of other Greek ecclesiastical authors. Banduri never published these works, though as late as 1722 he announced, as near at hand, their appearance in four folio volumes. In the meantime, he was attracted by the rich treasures of Byzantine manuscript and other material in the Bibliotheque Royale and the Bibliotheque Colbert. In 1711 he published at Paris his “Imperium Orientale, sive Antiquitates Constantinopolitanae”, etc., a documentary illustrated work on the Byzantine Empire, based on medieval Greek manuscripts, some of which were then first made known. He also defended himself successfully against Casimir Oudin, an ex-Premonstratensian, whose attacks were made on a second-hand knowledge of Banduri’s work. In 1718 he published, also at Paris, two folio volumes on the imperial coinage from Trajan to the last of the Palaeologi (98-1453), “Numismata Imperatorum Romanorum a Trajano Decio usque ad Palaeologos Augustos” (supplement by Tanini, Rome, 1791). Of this work Father Eckhel, S.J., prince of numismatologists, says (Doctrina Nummorum I, cviii) that it contains few important contributions. At the same time he praises the remarkable bibliography of the subject that Banduri prefixed to this work under the title of “Bibliotheca nummaria sive auctorum qui de re nummaria scripserunt”, reprinted by Fabricius (Hamburg, 1719). In 1715 Banduri was made an honorary foreign member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1724 was appointed librarian to the Duke of Orleans; he had in vain solicited a similar office at Florence on the death of the famous Magliabecchi.
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Freret in Mem. De l’acad. des inscr. et belles lettres, XVI, 348.
MAURICE M. HASSETT Transcribed by Susan Birkenseer
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Banduri, Anselmo
an Italian Benedictine of the Society of Meleda (Malta), was born at Ragusa, in Dalmatia, il 1671. He went to France in 1702 in order to perfect himself in the sciences. The grand-duke of Tuscany provided for all his wants.The Academy of Inscriptions received him among its members in 1715, and nine years after the duke of Orleans chose him for his librarian. He died at Paris, Jan. 14, 1743. The scholar De la Barre is supposed to have shared the composition of the works of Banduri, one of which is entitled Imperiumn Orientale, etc. (Paris, 1712); and another, Numismata Imperat. Rom., etc. (ibid. 1718). These two works are the most complete of any which exist upon the medals of the Lower Empire of Rome and Constantinople. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, S.V.