TER-TREE.
MAI, mi, ANGELO. Cardinal (1782-1854). A distinguished antiquary and philologist. lie was horn in the village of Schilpario, in Lombardy, March 7, 1782. He was educated and lived till NOS in establishments belonging to the -Jesuits, hut obtained an appointment, first as associate and ultimately as a doctor, in the celebrated Ambrosial' Library at Milan. In 1813 he pub lished a translation and commentary of Isocrates, De Permutations; but his reputation is due much more to his publications of the palimpsests or re written manuscripts, the first specimens of which he issued at Milan. (See PALIMPSEST.) Il is ear liest publications in that line were fragments of Clef ro's Orations; of the litlularia, a lost play of Plautus; of Lettcrs of Pronto, Marcus Aurelius's preceptor; the Chronicon of Eusebius, and other less important works, which. however, were entirely eclipsed by his well-known edition and restoration of the De Republica of Cicero, published in 1820. Meanwhile, Mai had been in vited to Rome by Pius VII., and named chief keeper of the Vatican Library. fie at once turned his attention to the unedited manuscripts of the Vatican, and after a short examination of this noble collection, undertook, as the mission of his life, the task of publishing those among them which had been overlooked by earlier edi tors, or had escaped their notice. This task Ile steadily pursued; and although he was appointed in ft33 to the onerous office of secretary of the propaganda, and. in 1838. to the cardinalate it
self. his Roman publications form a collection of an extent and importance almost unexampled in modern times. His first, series was in ten -Ito volumes, entitled Scriptoruni :Vora Cot leetio, e laticanis Codieibus Edit(' (Rome. 1825). It consists, like the great collections of Nabillon, Montfaucon, D'Achery. and others, of miscel laneous unpublished works, partly sacred, partly profane, and indifferently in the Greek and the Latin languages, comprising an entire volume of palimpsest fragments of the Greek historians Polybius. Diodorus, Dion, Dionysius. and others. The succeeding collections. viz. Classici Auctores ex Codieibus Vaticanis 110 rots. Svo. 1838) ; Spieilegium ROMUM1111 ( 10 WIS, Svo. 1839-44) ; and :Vora Patrum Bibliotheca (6 vol.. -Ito, 1853), are all on the same plan, and all equally replete with new and interesting materials.
MAIA (Lat., from Gk. Nara). In Greek myth ology. the daughter of Atlas by Pleione, a daugh ter of Oceanus:. She became the mother of Hermes by Zeus. On account of the similarity of name she was identified by the Romans with :.\laia Majestas. an ancient Italian spring-goddess. who was also called Bona Dea, Ops. and Fauna. In this aspect she was regarded as Vulcan's wife. and a pregnant sow was sacrificed to her on the first of May. This name is also given to the star 20 Pleiadum,