NARDI, FRANCESCO. - Prelate, canonist and publicist, b. at Vazzola (Veneto) on 18 June 1808, d. at Rome on 22 March 1877. Having embraced the ecclesiastical career, he taught biblical exegesis in the diocesan Seminary of Ceneda. He then taught in the Imperial and Royal Gymnasium of Venice, and was afterwards professor of ecclesiastical law and of philosophy at the University of Padua, of which he was also magnifico rettore.
He published in three volumes Elementi di diritto ecclesiastico (2nd ed., enlarged and corrected, Padua 1854) and a work on Diritto matrimoniale cattolico (ibid. 1857). Through his competence in canonistic matters he became auditor of the S. R. Rota for the Austrian Empire and settled in 1859 at Rome, where he was afterwards secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. He also carried on a very extensive publicistic activity, begun in 1848 with the Lettera a Giuseppe Mazzini in risposta alla sua lettera a Pio IX (Venice 1848), and continued in the decade 1860-70 in defense of the temporal power of the popes (Osservazioni sul dispocio del 27 ott. 1860 di Lord Giovanni Russell ministro degli Esteri di Gran Bretagna, Rome 1860; Roma e i suoi nemici. Al signor De la Guerannière, ibid. 1862; S. Bernardo, s. Caterina da Siena e Carlo Magno sul potere temporale del papa: Al signor Bojean senatore, Turin 1862 etc.). He also occupied himself with geographical studies and was an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of the Nuovi Lincei.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani