a person who studies and searches after monuments and remains of antiquity, as old medals, books, statues, sculptures, and inscriptions, and, in general, all curious pieces that may afford any light into antiquity. In the chief cities of Greece and Italy there were persons of distinction called antiquaries, whose business it was to show strangers the antiquities of the place, to explain the ancient inscriptions, and to give them all the assistance they could in this way of learning. Pausanias calls these antiquaries ἐπιστήμονες. The Sicilians call them mystagogi.

ANTIQUARY is also used by ancient writers for the keeper of the antiquarium or cabinet of antiquities. The officer is otherwise called archæota, or antiquary of a king, a prince, a state, or the like. Henry VIII. gave John Leland the title of his antiquary.