Brian Berni, palaeographer and archivist, was our guest on the Feast of Saint Ambrose, Dec. 7.

Mr. Berni presented his research findings on a manuscript of Saint Ambrose's de Officies, published December 4, 1514. A viewing of the text will mark the 500th anniversary of this text, which was recently acquired by The Academy.

Mr. Berni also discussed conclusions that can be drawn from his analysis of medieval margin notes that were added after publication. What do these footnotes say about the teachings of Ambrose, and who may have written them? What theological debates were occurring at that time in history and do they relate?

About Mr. Berni:

Mr. Berni earned his BA in Early Modern History and an MA (Cardiff, UK) in Medieval British Studies.

In 2008 he began his training at the Vatican Secret Archives, where he was employed as an archivist, researcher and Latin translator between 2010 and 2012. He also holds a degree in Library Science by the Vatican Library.

He has worked on 16th century ecclesiastical libraries, Early Medieval manuscripts and 14th century Papal letters and registers.

He is currently an independent scholar based in Milan, Italy.