THEODOLI, AUGUSTO. - Cardinal, b. in Rome on 18 Sept. 1819, d. there on 26 June 1892.
Appointed by Gregory XVI canon of S. Maria Maggiore, and by Pius IX (1847) Vatican canon, he became in 1856 rapporteur of the Consulta and ten years later auditor of the Segnatura and economic secretary of the Congregation of the Rev. Fabbrica di S. Pietro. In this office he acquired outstanding merits in regard to the Vatican Basilica. Particularly remembered are the arrangements carried out there for the solemn celebrations of the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (1867), and the alterations for the holding of the Ecumenical Council (1869–70). He had the colonnades restored, the Michelangelesque dome covered with lead, part of the marble pavement renewed, and the chapels of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Choir entirely restored. In 1882 Leo XIII made him his majordomo and prefect of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces and, in 1886, cardinal. He was the last cardinal protector of the Noble College of Roman Merchants.