PECCI, GIUSEPPE. — Cardinal, born at Carpineto Romano (diocese of Anagni) on 15 December 1807, died in Rome on 8 February 1890. Brother of Gioacchino, who later became Leone XIII, he pursued his early studies with him at the Collegio dei Nobili in Viterbo, directed by the Jesuits.
He entered the Society in 1824 and remained there until 1848, when, forced by the revolutionary upheavals to disperse, he managed to remain in hiding in Rome; nor, once calm had returned, did he feel able to rejoin his confrères, and he left the Order, moving to Carpineto. Later he was summoned by his brother, then archbishop of Perugia, to teach philosophy in that Seminary. In 1861 he became professor of higher philosophy at the University of Rome, but in 1870 he lost his chair because of his refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the Italian government.
Leone XIII appointed him vice-librarian of the Holy Roman Church, then creating him cardinal deacon of S. Agata alla Suburra at the Consistory of 12 May 1879. He was also prefect of the Vatican Archives and president of the Roman Academy of S. Tommaso d'Aquino.
In 1889 he requested permission to re-enter the Society of Jesus, also prompted by the Pontiff, his brother, who submitted the request to the superior general, A. M. Anderledy; and in July he renewed his solemn vows in his private chapel, where they were received by Cardinal C. Mazzella in the name of the superior general (cf. P. Galletti, Mem. storiche intorno al p. Ugo Molza, Rome 1912, pp. 435–41).
Endowed with a powerful intellect, he distinguished himself as a cultivator of philosophical studies and was among the most ardent supporters of Thomistic philosophy, contributing so effectively to the preparation of the encyclical Aeterni Patris of 4 August 1879 and to the subsequent implementation of the norms promulgated therein, so that the doctrine of Aquinas might be taught in all Catholic schools.
Among his principal writings are: Parafrasi e dichiarazioni dell'opuscolo di s. Tommaso «De Ente et Essentia» (Rome 1882); S. Tommaso circa l'influsso divino
e la scientia media (ibid. 1882); Osservazioni sopra alcuni errori di Kant (ibid. n. d.); Studi sulla psicologia (ibid. n. d.).
Mario de Camillo-Celestino Testore