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Giovanni Lami (8 November 1697 – 6 February 1770) was an Italian jurist, church history, and antiquarian.
Giovanni enrolled in 1715 to study law at the University of Pisa and obtained his doctorate in 1719. Among his professors and influences there was Luigi Guido Grandi, a Camaldolese mathematician. Upon graduation, he spent a year in the circle of Anton Maria Salvini, an erudite scholar of Classic Greek literature and philosophy. Treccani Encyclopedia, entry by Maria Pia Paoli - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 63 (2004).
In 1732, Lami returned to become librarian at the private Biblioteca Riccardiana, belonging to the wealthy Riccardi family in Florence. The next year he was appointed by the Grand Duke Gian Gastone to a position teaching ecclesiastical history at the University of Florence. Under both these grand-dukes, there was tolerance for scholars voicing a more enlightened attitude towards what should be the accepted cult of Roman Catholicism. For example, Lami, like others such as Muratori in Modena, marshalled a historian and antiquarian research to assessing the likely validity of relics or other venerations.
He was a member of various academic societies in Florence. In the early 1750s, along with Ubaldo Montelatici, he helped found the Accademia dei Georgofili. This group paid special attention to natural sciences and was patronized by Francis I, the first Grand-Duke of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. Lami was admitted into the Accademia della Crusca in August of 1737.
In 1736, Lami began his eighteen-volume Deliciae eruditorum, a "hodge-podge of antiquarian lore" published over a span of decades at Florence.Ephraim Emerton (1923), Altopascio—A Forgotten Order, American Historical Review, 29(1):3. Typically published mostly in Latin, but including Greek annotations, the volumes republished varied investigations into local history, as well as classic and early Christian history. Among the topics, for example was a voyage (Hodeporicon) from Florence to his native Santa Croce dell'Arno, describing the chronology of events in the series of towns. All claimed to be a report by two pseudonymous travelers, Charitonis and Hippoliti in a plodding erudite detail.
Lami was the first to describe the Byzantine manuscripts Minuscule 201, Minuscule 362, and Minuscule 370. He also wrote a Memorabilia, dedicated to the illustrious men of his time, and many other works of history and philology.
Lami also started and edited from 1740–1768 an erudite and scholarly journal, Novelle Litterarie, published in Florence and discussing subjects in all fields. The journal had a substantial intra-Florentine subscription census, but never achieved a European appeal such as the competing journal by After 1768, Giuseppe Bencivenni Pelli took his editorial position. Lami was a court theologian and counselor to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Despite not taking ecclesiastical orders, he never married. He died alone at home in Florence on 6 February 1770 and is buried in the church of Santa Croce, Florence. His huge monument, erected in 1772, lies on the south wall close to Galileo and opposite Michelangelo. His Latinised epitaph gives his name as Ioanni Lamio.
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