Biography

He was born at Chios

Chios

Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...

, an island in the Archipelago, 4 December 1713; died at Corneto, near Montefiascone

Montefiascone

Montefiascone is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo, Italy, located on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, 95 km north of GRA .-History:...

 in Italy on 7 June 1792. At the age of sixteen he entered the convent of Chios and passed later to St. Mark's at Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and the Minerva at Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

In 1740 he was appointed professor of physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 in the Roman Sapienza university, and in 1743 taught philosophy at the Propaganda Fide. His residence at Florence and Rome brought him into contact with brilliant men of his order, e.g. Giuseppe Agostino Orsi

Giuseppe Agostino Orsi

Giuseppe Agostino Orsi was a cardinal, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian.Born as Agostino Francesco Orsi at Florence on 9 May 1692, of the aristocratic Florentine family Orsi, he studied grammar and rhetoric under the Jesuits, but entered the Dominican Order at Fiesole on 21 February 1708...

, Divelli and Daniello Concina

Daniello Concina

Daniello Concina was an Italian Dominican preacher, controversialist and theologian.-Biography:He was born at Clauzetto or San Daniele, villages in Friuli....

, and greatly facilitated his progress in his studies. He collaborated with Orsi in his "De Romani pontificis in synodos oecumenicas et earum canones potestate".

Soon pope Benedict XIV appointed him prefect of the Casanatensian Library, master of theology and consultor

Consultor

A consultor is one who gives counsel, i.e. a counselor.In the Catholic Church, it is a specific title for various advisory positions:*in the Roman Curia, a consultor is a specially appointed expert who may be called upon for advice desired by a department...

 of the Congregation of the Index. Owing to his office he had to take part in the controversy between the Appellants (Jansenists) and the Jesuits, and displayed an impartiality which greatly increased the difficulties of his anxious and laborious position. He engaged in lively theological controversies with Gian Domenico Mansi and Cadonici.

He had likewise to intervene in the controversy concerning the beatification

Beatification

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...

 of Juan de Palafox y Mendoza

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza

Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza was a Spanish archbishop in the Roman Catholic Church. He also held political office in the New World. From June 10, 1642 to November 23, 1642 he was viceroy of New Spain.-Early life:...

. In a published writing on this question, he dealt severely with the Jesuit party who opposed the beatification; but he was not less energetic in dealing with their opponents, the Appellants and Jansenist Church of Utrecht

Utrecht (city)

Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

.

He was director of the ecclesiastical journal of Rome (1742–85), and established at his residence a reunion of the learned Roman society.

Mamachi was a zealous supporter of the power of the Roman Pontiff. Involved in all the controversy of the day, he was one of the first to take issue with Johannes Nicolaus Von Hontheim (Febronius). Pius VI made him secretary of the Index (1779) and afterwards Master of the Sacred Palace

Master of the Sacred Palace

In the Roman Catholic Church, Theologian of the Pontifical Household is a Roman Curial office which has always been entrusted to a Friar Preacher of the Dominican Order and may be described as the pope's theologian...

, and frequently availed himself of his advice and of his pen.

Writings

Mamachi's great work was to have been his "Christian Antiquities", but his labours in the field of dogma

Dogma

Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...

 and jurisprudence

Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...

 absorbed so much of his time that he published only four of the twenty books that he planned. Moreover, he lived in an age when the good method inaugurated by Antonio Bosio

Antonio Bosio

Antonio Bosio was an Italian scholar, the first systematic explorer of subterranean Rome , author of Roma Sotterranea and first urban spelunker.-Biography:Bosio was born in Malta....

had been abandoned and, considered as an archaeological work, the synthesis which he had projected is valueless. A second edition, however, appeared in 1842-1851.

His chief writings are:

• "De ratione temporum Athanasiorum deque aliquot synodis IV saeculo celebratis" (Florence, 1748)
• "Originum et antiquitatum christianarum libri XX" (4 volumes Rome, 1749–55)
• "Dei costumi dei primitivi cristiani" (3 volumes Rome, 1753 sqq.)
• "Epistolae ad Justinum Febronium de ratione regendae christianae reipublicae (2 volumes Rome, 1776–77).