BUSNELLI, Giovanni. - Jesuit writer, b. at Cassina Ferrara (Milan) on 16 March 1866, d. at Rome on 31 March 1944. After completing his sacred studies at the seminary in Milan and earning a degree in letters and philosophy at the University of Padua, he moved to Rome among the writers of *La Civiltà Cattolica*. He distinguished himself through meticulous and learned publications in theology, philosophy, theosophy, literature, and criticism. He particularly stood out as a Dante scholar and was a member of the Arcadia and St. Thomas Academies.
Among his writings on Dante, in addition to his collaboration with the *Giornale dantesco* and *Studi danteschi*, we cite: *Il simbolo delle tre fiere dantesche* (Rome 1909), *L'unica nicomachea e l'ordinamento morale dell'Inferno di Dante* (Bologna 1907), *Il Virgilio dantesco e il Gran Veglio di Creta* (Rome 1919), *L'ordinamento morale del Purgatorio dantesco* (ibid. 1908), *Cosmogonia e Antropogonesi secondo Dante Alighieri e le sue fonti* (ibid. 1922), *L'origine dell'anima razionale secondo Dante e Alberto M.* (ibid. 1929), *Il concetto e l'ordinamento del Paradiso dantesco* (Città di Castello 1911), and the two volumes of the monumental commentary on the *Convivio*, entrusted to him by the Italian Dante Society (Florence 1934–37). He wrote extensively on Manzoni; noteworthy is *La conversione di Alessandro Manzoni dal carteggio di lui* (Rome 1913). Among his notable philosophical works are *I fondamenti dell'idealismo attuale staminati* (ibid. 1926), *Il metodo cartesiano e il metodo aristotelico* (Milan 1937), *Filosofia e pedagogia* (Rome 1932), *Indipendenza e novità dell'arte e l'idealismo moderno* (ibid. 1933), and the four volumes of the *Manuale di teosofia* (ibid. 1911, 1915, 1932).