Giuseppe Luigi Assemani

Who was Giuseppe Luigi Assemani?

Giuseppe Luigi Assemani was a Lebanese orientalist and a Professor of Oriental languages at Rome.

Assemani came from a well known family of Lebanese Maronites that included several notable Orientalists. His brother was Archbishop Giuseppe Simone Assemani whom he helped with his writings; besides assisting his brother he also studied in Rome and was appointed by the Pope, firstly as the Professor of Syriac at the Sapienza and later as the Professor of liturgy by Pope Benedict XIV. The Pope also made Assemani a member of the Academy for Historic Research which had just been established.

Assemani and his brother between them laid the foundations of modern historical research with their work on publishing the correct editions of various early and Middle Age writers as well as their work on the decrees of the various general, national, and provincial councils. They were also influential by the examples they set in their own works on how historical materials should be used.