MONTAGNANI, PIETRO. - Neo-Scholastic philosopher, b. at Tredozio (diocese of Modigliana) on 28 Aug. 1843, d. in the charterhouse of Trisulti (Rome) on 8 June 1902. Trained in Rosminian ideas and in contact with various philosophers of his time, at the moment of the restoration of Thomism under Leo XIII (1879), after serious personal investigations, he became a fervent upholder of Scholastic philosophy.
He wrote: Rosmini, s. Tommaso e la logica (Bologna 1890); Tomisti e neotomisti (Rome 1891); Scolastica ed estetica (Parma 1891); Il sistema della verità sconfessato dalla verità (Milan 1892) and numerous other pamphlets. He collaborated assiduously with the periodicals La scuola cattolica, La scienza italiana, La sveglia delle Romagne, La favilla.
After years of teaching at Siena, at Rocca S. Cassiano and in the Seminary of Modigliana, he was called to Cesena and appointed vicar general of the diocese by Msgr. Vespignani, a distinguished cultivator of Scholastic philosophy, who was a sincere admirer of M. At Cesena he collaborated on the best pastoral letters of Vespignani (Il libero pensiero, Il socialismo), which are true treatises, and he kept in touch with Ausonio Franchi (Cristoforo Bonavino), in whose conversion he played a significant part (cf. letters of M. and A. Franchi, in Civ. Catt., 1896, v. pp. 431-39). Difficulties and misunderstandings induced M. to retire to the charterhouse of Vedana (Belluno), where he professed with the name of d. Roberto on 29 June 1894. He spent his last years in the study of the great theologian of the Order, Denis the Carthusian.