Comparetti

Comparetti, DOMENICO, philologist, was born 27th June 1835 at Rome. He studied the natural sciences and mathematics, next held a post in a library, and in 1859 was appointed to the chair of Greek in the university of Pisa, which he exchanged a few years later for the same chair in the Instituto di Studi Superiori at Florence. His studies bore fruit in frequent articles in the learned journals, and in a series of learned works, among them one on Greek dialects in South Italy (1866), on Virgil the Magician (1872; trans. 1895), and on Homer and Pisistratus (1881). With D'Ancona he edited the Canti e Racconti del Popolo Italiano (1870-90), and he settled in Rome. To English folklorists his name is known from his Researches concerning the Book of Sindibad (Folklore Society, 1882).