QUANDEL, GIUSEPPE. – Abbot of Montecassino, b. in Naples on 22 Aug. 1833, d. at Montecassino on 27 Feb. 1897. Son of General Giovan Battista, he entered the military college of the Nunziatella; by 1860 he had already attained the rank of major.
After Garibaldi’s landing he fought in Sicily, then joined the sovereign at Gaeta and took part in the defence of that last bastion of Bourbon rule. With the fall of the fortress he abandoned military life. He graduated in mathematics, and in 1862 published a Diario de lavoro del Genio napoletano nella difesa di Gaeta, but disillusioned with the world he retired on 10 March 1864 to the abbey of Montecassino and made his profession on 26 Dec. 1865. After teaching mathematics in the monastery school, he held various administrative posts until elected abbot on 28 June 1866. His name is linked to two undertakings begun by his predecessor, Abbot D’Orgemont: the restoration of the Torretta di S. Benedetto and the founding of the diocesan seminary of S. Giuseppe. Active and practical, he nonetheless did not neglect literary and historical studies: in 1887 and 1891 he published a Codex diplomaticus Caietanus, which forms the first two volumes of the Tabularum Casinense.