Antonino Bertolotti was born in Turin on 16th March 1834, to Agapito and Angela Vayra.

Having obtained a degree in Chemistry and a license as a pharmacist, he did not practice, becoming an employee of the Public Administration.

In 1871 he was posted to the newly established State Archives in Rome, where he devoted himself passionately to the study and transcription of then unpublished modern-age material. Specifically, numerous publications of documents concerning the likes of Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini, the Della Porta, etc., are traced back to his name.

A decade later, in 1881, he was appointed director of the Mantua State Archives, where he zealously continued his studies; he was also appointed director ad interim of the Brescia State Archives between 1886 and 1888.

He was a member of several Italian and foreign Academies and also held the position of free professor of Paleography at the University of Rome during those years.

He died in Mantua on 22nd May 1893.

You can consult the death certificate on the Ancestors Portal: Archivio di Stato di Mantova > IStato civile italiano sino al 1900 > Mantova > 1893

The original is preserved at theState Archives of Mantua. This institute is also home to the Antonino Bertolotti (1826-1891, with antecedents from 1569).

For more on the figure of Antonino Bertolotti, see the entry of the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani edited by Guglielmo Capogrossi Guarna.