Ambrogio Calepino

An Italian lexicographer, born about 1440 at Calepio (province of Bergamo); died 1510 or 1511. He entered the Augustinian Order in 1458. His Latin dictionary, under the title of “Cornucopiæ”, appeared first in 1502 at Reggio. It was reprinted many times during the sixteenth century, the Aldi alone giving no less than eighteen editions from 1542 to 1592. Later editions were considerably enlarged. To the Latin of the original were added equivalents in other languages. Thus we have the Basle edition (1590) which contains eleven languages: “Ambrosii Calepini dictionarium undecim linguarum: respondent autem latinis vocabulis hebraica, græca, gallica, italica, germanica, belgica, hispanica, polonica, ungarica, angelica”. The edition in seven languages by Facciolati (Pavia, 1718) was reprinted many times. Calepinus became a common name, a synonym of dictionary or lexicon, and we find titles like the following: “Septem linguarum calepinus, hoc est, lexicon latinum”. Calepino also wrote the life of St. John the Hermit which is found in the “Acta Sanctorum” for the 22nd of October (Oct. IX, 748-767).