The Italian historian and antiquary Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750) is known for his publication of historical documents. He has been called the father of Italian history.

Lodovico Antonio Muratori was born at Vignola in the duchy of Modena on Oct. 21, 1672. He took minor orders in 1688 and had become a doctor of Roman and canon laws by 1694. Immediately after his ordination in 1695, Muratori was appointed to a post at the Ambrosian library in Milan. While a young man, his interest in philological studies and antiquarian scholarship had been awakened by the director of the library of the dukes of Modena, Father Benedetto Bacchini. At Milan he completed the first volumes of his first major work, the Anecdota (Milan, 1697-1698; Padua, 1713), a collection of documents drawn from the Ambrosian collections. In 1700, on Bacchini's retirement, he returned to Modena to take over the directorship. From this point on, his life story...