Nestor, Dionysius

, one of the contributors to the restoration of classical learning, was a native of Novara, a lawyer, and of the Minorite order. He flourished in the fifteenth century, but no particulars of his life are upon record. He dedicated his lexicon, or vocabulary of the Latin tongue, in a copy of verses addressed to the duke Ludovicus Sforza, which are printed by Mr. Roscoe in the Appendix, No. XX. to his Life of Leo X. This work was first printed under the title of “Onomasticon,” at Milan, in 1483, fol. an edition of great rarity and price; but such was its importance to the study of the Latin language in that age, that it was reprinted four times, in 1488, 1496, 1502, and 1507. This last, printed at Strasburgh, contains some pieces by the author, “de octo partibus orationis,” “de compositione eleganti,” and “de syllabarum quantitate.” He quotes as authorities a great many of his learned contemporaries and predecessors. ²