FOGGINI, Pier Francesco. Historian and theologian, born in Florence in 1733, died in Rome on 31 May 1783. Son of Giovan Battista, renowned as the finest sculptor of his time and an architect in the service of the Grand Duke, he pursued his theological studies at the University of Pisa, where he may have acquired his sympathy for Jansenism and his proximity to Enlightenment theories.
A friend of Giovanni Lami, he collaborated on the latter’s Novelle letterarie. Invited to Rome, he met and formed a friendship with his fellow citizen Giovanni Bottari. He was a member of the Academy of Ecclesiastical History, in which he delivered learned dissertations on several occasions, even in the presence of the Pope. In 1746, at Bottari’s request, he became his assistant with the right of succession to the office of Second Custodian of the Vatican Library, a position he obtained in 1788 when Bottari became First Custodian. Esteemed for his learning and moderation, he served as theologian to Cardinal Neri Corsini and later to his nephew, Cardinal Andrea Corsini. In this capacity, he exerted influence within the Commission for the Suppression of the Jesuits, of which Cardinal Andrea Corsini was a member. Indeed, he was entrusted with executing the suppression of the English College, and the Jesuit General Ricci was placed under his supervision until his transfer to Castel Sant’Angelo, where Foggin visited him several times. Through Bottari, he also formed a relationship and friendship with Cardinal Passionei, frequently visiting his hermitage at Camaldoli. Thus, in Rome, he completed his Jansenist formation.
He contributed to the Giornale de’ letterati and was entrusted with various delicate assignments in the Eternal City, either directly or in service to his cardinal friends. A distinguished scholar of ecclesiastical history, he published several works of the Fathers, most notably that of St. Augustine on Grace, in eight volumes dedicated successively to different nephews, and he edited and commented on the works of Giorgio da Pisa. His history of St. Romano provoked a controversy that lasted ten years. Following in the footsteps of Lami and Muratori, he applied critical discernment in his research, insisting on a strict separation of legend from history, a stance defended by the Dominican Mannucci.
Regarding his stance toward the papacy and its prerogatives, in theory he appeared Catholic, but in practice he wavered between truth and error. He consistently sought to moderate the episcopalist ideas of his friend De Ricci. In disputed questions of moral theology, initially an opponent and later a supporter of the *Concilium*, he was firmly opposed to probabilism. In the doctrine of Grace, he was Augustinian, and although he did not publish any dogmatic study, in his individual works on the Fathers he sought to reconcile the Augustinian system with patristic tradition.
In dogmatic matters, Foggin shared De Ricci’s views, as well as in propagating the “sound doctrine,” promoting all his initiatives, disseminating his pastoral letters, and ensuring their translation into French; however, he dissented regarding the method of implementing reforms. Due to his untimely death, he could not witness the decidedly Erastian and anti-Roman turn these reforms took at the famous Synod. Foggin must be regarded, after Bottari, as the principal spiritual leader of the Roman Jansenists, complementing one another despite differences in temperament and formation, united as they were by a common sympathy for heretics rather than for the heresies of the time.