Scholar
The son of Luigi and Susanna née Casauro, an Italian from Rome, Domenico Magri was born in Valletta.
Domenico received his tonsure and the first four orders of priesthood in a special place - one of Bishop’s Cagliares country houses, on a small hill near Mdina, then known as Monte Cagliaresio in September 1620. The Bishop conferred Holy Orders on the 16-year old Domenico. Soon after he went to Palermo to study law under the tutorship of his uncle from his mother side, Professor Luigi Casauro. He proceeded to Rome for further studies.
In a detailed study of five-part series, about ‘The earliest encyclopaedia, 1644’, Giovanni Bonello, gave us an interesting biographical and bibliographical notes about him.
He spent most of his life in Italy, and at the age of 19, the Church sent him to a delicate diplomatic mission to Syria, to placate the Catholic Moronite clergy, then at loggerheads with Rome, on a matter of alleged discrimination against the seminarians. Magri’s embassy to Lebanon was probably the result of his confident command of Semitic languages. This mission was carried out in 1623. On returning to Rome, he took with him twelve Maronite students who were received in the College of the propaganda Fide which Pope Urban VIII had founded some years earlier.
On 1 February 1625, he joined the Society of Jesus and in 1628 he was residing at the Collegio Romano. Till then he had studied philosophy for two years and taught Grammar for one year. He continued to study philosophy and theology at the same college. It is most probably that during his years as a Jesuit he was ordained priest.
He arrived in Malta in May 1640 and joined the community of Collegium Melitense. At this stage. He started thinking of leaving the Society of Jesus, and he sought permission to this effect in a letter to the Father General written from Malta in 1640. Between 1641 and 1642 Magri was left in charge of preaching in Maltese, in lingua Arabica. In December 1643 he was at Messina, and he definitely relinguished the Society of Jesus.
Some years later he was back in Malta and in 1648 Bishop Balaguer appointed him parish priest of Vittoriosa, following a competitive examination. The other candidate, Fr Gio. Matteo Abela, sued Magri before the Roman Rota, claiming favouritism and irregularities on the part of the Bishop. Abela won in 1651 and Magri was stripped of the appointment. While this lawsuit was still pending, in June 1648, Don Magri was appointed parish priest of St Paul’s parish in Valletta, where he stayed till 22 September 1649.
Once more Magri left Malta and proceed to Rome where he was left incharge of the Catechumens’ College and Consultor of the Congregation of the Index of Prohibited Books. Moreover, he was appointed Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of Faith. It is held that Pope Innocent X offered him twice a bishopric, but he preferred to stay in the said office. Pope Innocent left in his care the education of his nephew Prince Pamphili Giustiniani.
Joannes Domenicus Magri was created Knight Dello Sperone d’Oro, Palatine Count and Protonotary Apostolic. He was in the service of Cardinal R. Maria Brancacci, Bishop of Viterbo as Consulter, who, eventually, appointed him Canon Theologian of his Cathedral Chapter.
In 1644 Magri published in Italian the first edition of his encyclopaedia of ecclesiastical terms - Notitia De Vocaboli Ecclesiastici - printed in Messina in 1644. This edition contains a treasurehouse of information about Malta. It was an instant international success. Bonello described Magri’s work as ‘the only Maltese bestseller in antiquity: more than 19 editions of the same work, spread over 144 years, prove an incredible record by any standards’. This work originally was in Italian, but a Latin version the Hierolexicon was published by his brother Carlo in Rome in 1677.
This Maltese scholar wrote also a curious book - Virtu del Kafe, Bevanda Introdotta Nuovamente Nell’Italia con alcune osservationi per conservar la sanità nella vecchiaia. All’eminentissimo Signor Cardinal Brancaccio. In Roma (1671). This pamphlet reproduces a long letter, said to have been written from Malta on 29 July 1665 by Magri to Cardinal Brancaccio, who had published a similar treatise on another recent beverage - the chocolate. According to Giovanni Bonello’s study, ‘As far as I have been able to establish, Magri’s is the first popular work on coffee published in Italy, and not unlikely, in Europe’.
Magri passed away in March 1672 in Viterbo. His portrait with an inscription is at the Capitular Library of the Cathedral of that historical city.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.