PALMIERI, DOMENICO. – Jesuit, philosopher, and theologian, born at Piacenza on 4 July 1829, died at Rome on 28 May 1909. He taught philosophy, theology, and Sacred Scripture at the Seminary of Fermo, the College of Spoleto, the Gregorian University (1863–79), and at Maastricht in Holland (1880–87). Upon returning to Rome, he became theologian of the Penitentiary, consultor of the Holy Office, and subsequently a member of the Commission for the CIC.
He wrote numerous works, notable for their depth of doctrine and clarity of exposition. In the Institutiones philosophiae (3 vols., Rome 1874–76) he revealed himself to be an acute reasoner, but unfortunately he did not always penetrate deeply into the principles of scholasticism, as in the question of the distinction of accidents from substance and of the union of the soul with the body. His theological works are of greater value (De Deo creante et elevante, Rome 1878; De penitentia, there 1879; De matrimonio christiano, there 1880; De Gratia divina actuali, Gulpen 1885; De novissimis, Prato 1908; De ordine supernaturali et lapsu angelorum, there 1910; in particular the Tractatus de Romano Pontifice cum prolegomeno de Ecclesia, Rome 1877, 3rd ed., Prato 1902). In the field of moral theology, he prepared new editions of Gury’s Compendium theol. moralis and Ballerini’s Opus theologicum morale (3rd ed., 7 vols., Prato 1898–1901). He also wrote works on modernism (v.). Particular mention should be made of his Commento alla Divina Commedia (3 vols., Prato 1898), notable for its exposition of the philosophical and theological thought of Alighieri.
BIBL. Harter, V. II, 1910: anon., L'Università Gregoriana del Collegio Romano nel I secolo dalla restituzione, Rome 1929, pp. 170–73; B. Ojetti, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XI, pp. 430–31.