DANDINI, GIROLAMO. - Born at Cesena around 1550, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome on 17 Aug. 1569, and died at Forlì on 29 Nov. 1634. From June 1596 to Aug. 1597, together with Fr. Fabio Bruno, he made the apostolic visitation of the Maronites of Mount Lebanon; besides its informative purpose, the visitation was to regulate the sending of students to the Maronite College in Rome (cf. the instructions published by A. Rabbath, Documents pour servir à l'histoire du christianisme en Orient, I, Paris 1910, pp. 170-73). Dandini also convened two synods of Maronite bishops.
The book in which he interweaves the recollections of the journey, the description of the country, and the account and the acts of the visitation, was published posthumously (1656) at Cesena: Missione apostolica al Patriarca e Maroniti del Monte Libano del p. G. D., da Cesena, e sua pellegrinazione a Gerusalemme. The French translation, Paris 1675 (several reprints), is by the Oratorian R. Simon. Having returned from the Levant, the father discharged various positions of responsibility (in Poland, France and Italy). He left two other works: De corpore animato (Paris 1601); Ethica sacra, hoc est de virtutibus et vitiis, Cesena 1651 (Antwerp 1676).
Bibliography
Edmondo Lamalle