BONDI, CLEMENTE. - Jesuit and poet, b. at Mezzano Superiore (Parma) on 27 June 1742, d. at Vienna on 20 June 1821. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1760, he was studying theology at Bologna in 1773 when the Society was suppressed. Having withdrawn to Mantova, he became librarian there to the Zanardi household, where a circle of men of letters gathered. He subsequently held the same post with the archdukes Ferdinando di 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.
An Arcadian shepherd under the name Metabo Brianno, he published many short poetic compositions, collected in various editions: Opere edite e inedite di verso e in prosa (3 vols., Venezia 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 together with the following: Le Georgiche (Vienna 1800); La Buccolica (ibid. 1811); Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio (Parma 1806).