PANVINIO, ONUFRIO, a voluminous Italian antiquary and historian, was born at Verona in 1529. A love for the records of former times early became his master-passion and gave the bent to his entire career. That he might enjoy both time and opportunities for study, he became a monk of the order of St. Augustine, and in that capacity went to receive his education at Rome. The appointment to a theological chair at Florence did not divert him from his favourite pursuits, for he soon obtained from his superiors leave to resign. He then made an antiquarian tour through Italy, rummaging the archives in the principal cities, and collecting information touching the dates of events and the customs of nations from the inscriptions on medals, monuments, and other relics of antiquity. This course of preparatory study was followed by a period which was spent in the midst of literary quiet, and under the smile of liberal patrons. In 1555 Pope Marcellus II. encouraged him in his studies, and gave him a situation in the library of the Vatican. On the death of that pontiff immediately afterwards, he was received into the family of Cardinal Farnese. He was daily obtaining other marks of his patron's esteem, when he was cut off in 1568, at the age of thirty-nine. Panvinio left many erudite works behind him. Among the most important are the following:—
Epistola Pontificum Romanorum usque ad Paulum IV., fol., Venice, 1567; Vijinti-Septem Pontificum Romanorum Elogia et Imagines, fol., Rome, 1568; Fatti et Triumphi Romanorum a Romulo usque ad Carolum V., Venice, 1567; De Ludis Secularibus et Antiquis Romanorum Nominibus, fol., Heidelberg, 1588; De Baptismate, Paschali Origine, et Ritu Consecrandi Agnos Dei, 4to, Rome, 1560; De Sybillis et Carusibus Sybillis, 8vo, Venice, 1567; De Triumpho Commentarius, fol., Rome, 1573, and 4to, Helmstadt, 1676; De Ritu Sepeliendi Mortuos apud Veteres Christianos et Eorum Ceteris, 8vo, Louvain, 1572, and 8vo, Rome, 1581; De Republica Romana, 8vo, Venice, 1581; De Bibliotheca Pontificis Vaticana, 4to, Tarragona, 1587; De Ludis Circensibus Libri Duo et De Triumphis Liber Unus, fol., Venice, 1600; Asplunini Ornamentisque Triumphi ex Antiquissimis Lapidum Nummorum Monumentis, &c., Descriptio, fol., Rome, 1618; and De Antiquitate et Viris Illustribus Veronae Libri Octo, fol., Padua, 1648.