Sordi, Domenico and Serafino

SORDI, DOMENICO AND SERAFINO. - Two of the five Sordi brothers from Piacenza, all Jesuits, who distinguished themselves by their contribution to the renewal of Scholastic philosophy in the 19th century, following the direction received from Canon Vincenzo Buzzetti, their teacher at the Seminary of Piacenza.

DOMENICO (b. at Centenaro di Piacenza on 30 April 1790, d. at Piacenza on 10 December 1880), teaching ethics and natural law at Naples (1829-30), was the principal collaborator of Taparelli (v.) in the reform of studies in the new Neapolitan Scholastic movement, but because of his imprudent attitude he was removed from teaching and left no philosophical writings. SERAFINO, on the other hand (b. at Centenaro di Piacenza on 3 February 1793, d. at Verona on 17 May 1865), exercised a very notable influence on the Thomist revival through his teaching, his writings, and his contact with eminent men such as Taparelli, Curci and Giuseppe Pecci. He taught at Ferrara, Modena, Forlì, Spoleto, was rector at Urbino, Modena, Piacenza and Reggio, provincial at Rome, and a writer for La Civiltà Cattolica. He wrote several short works of a philosophical character examining and criticizing the philosophical ideas of Gioberti and Rosmini (Lettere intorno al Nuovo Saggio sull'origine delle idee dell'ob. A. Rosmini, Modena 1843; I primi elementi del sistema di V. Gioberti dialogizzati tra lui e un lettore dell'opera sua, Bergamo 1849; I misteri di Demofilo per S. S. professore di filosofia, Turin 1850); other writings in which he sets out his philosophical thought remained unpublished, and some have recently been published (Ontologia, Theologia naturalis aliaque philosophica scripta, edited by P. Dezza, Milan 1941-44). Although his early studies were of a non-Scholastic orientation, having come into contact with Thomist thought he was filled with admiration for it, and from then on he had no more uncertainties or hesitations, whence the profound conviction that shines through his writings, together with a penetration and acuteness of speculation, solid logic in the development of his own thought, a vast knowledge of modern authors and systems, and clarity of exposition. Of a modest and reserved character, to the point of publishing some works anonymously, his name did not receive the resonance that his work deserved.

Paolo Dezza