BONDI, Clemente. - Jesuit and poet, b. at Meczanzo Superiore (Parma) on 27 June 1742, d. at Vienna on 20 June 1821. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1760 and was studying theology in Bologna in 1773 when the Society was suppressed. He retired to Mantua, where he became librarian in the household of the Zanardi family, a circle of literati gathering there. Later he held the same office with the Archdukes Ferdinand of Austria and Beatrice d'Este, whom he followed to Austria at the time of the French invasion. He finally settled in Vienna, where he taught history and literature to the Empress.
A pastoral poet under the name of Metabo Brianco, he published many small poetic compositions, collected in various volumes: *Opere edite e inedite di verso e in prosa* (3 vols., Venice 1808; 2 vols., Bassano 1811). But he is especially renowned for his translations of Virgil and Ovid into Italian verse: *L'Eneide* (2 vols., Parma 1790–93; in various reprints, separately or with the following): *Le Georgiche* (Vienna 1800); *La Buccolica* (ibid. 1811); *Le Metafrasi di Ovidio* (Parma 1806).