GERDIL, HYACINTHE-SIGISMOND. — Cardinal, philosopher, pedagogue, and theologian, b. at Samoëns (Savoie) on 23 June 1718, d. in Rome on 12 Aug. 1802. At the age of sixteen he entered the Congregation of the Barnabites and completed his higher studies at the University of Bologna. He taught philosophy at the Colleges of Macerata and Casale Monferrato; then natural ethics (1749) and moral theology (1754) at the University of Turin.
In 1764 he left teaching to become tutor to Prince Carlo Emanuele (the future King Carlo Emanuele IV) at court. In 1776 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Pius VI, and the following year was appointed titular Bishop of Dibona; then in the Consistory of 23 June 1777 he was created cardinal. For two decades he was extremely busy, both in Curial offices (he also governed the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide) and in composing polemical works against the errors of the time and attacks on the Church. When Rome was occupied by the French (Feb. 1798), he was obliged to retire to Piedmont (where he was treated with some consideration by the occupying French). He was a papal candidate in the Conclave of Venice (1800; he failed because of the veto imposed by Cardinal Hertzan on behalf of the Emperor of Austria), from which Pius VII emerged as pope; the latter recalled G. to Rome, where he remained until his death. He was a member of distinguished academies (Academy of Sciences of Turin; Institute of Bologna; Crusca Academy).
G.’s scientific output is chiefly philosophical. As a theologian, apart from contemporary controversies, he left no original works (though he did write an extensive and excellent treatise on moral theology); he is also responsible for drafting the fine Auctorem fidei (a condemnation of the Synod of Pistoia, 1786). As a philosopher, he accompanied, with vigilant
publications on music: De cantu et musica sacra prima Ecclesiae aetate usque ad praesens tempus (2 vols., 1774), followed by Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum ex variis Italiae, Galliae et Germaniae codicibus manuscriptis collecti (3 vols., 1784; analytical reproduction, Milan 1931); on liturgy: Vetus liturgia Allemannica (2 vols., 1776); Monumenta veteris liturgiae Allemannica (2 vols., 1777–79); on theology: his Principia theologiae exegeticae, dogmaticae, symbolicae, mysticae, canonicae, moralis, sacramentariae, liturgicae (in as many volumes, 1777–80) form a veritable and complete ecclesiastical encyclopedia. His copious correspondence, mainly historical-scientific, with complete and detailed introductions, was edited by G. Pfeilschüter (3 vols., so far I, Karlsruhe 1931; II, 1934).