TIZZANI, VINCENZO. - Archbishop, b. in Rome on 27 June 1809, d. there on 19 Jan. 1892.
A Canon Regular of the Lateran in Sept. 1832, after taking his degree in theology at the Roman Athenaeum, he became auditor of the nunciature in Naples in 1838 and subsequently professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Rome. Procurator General of his Order in 1839, and abbot of S. Agnese on the Via Nomentana two years later, on 3 Apr. 1843 he was appointed bishop of Terni. After four years, he obtained release from this office because of ill health: Pius IX then restored him to his university chair, assigned him the titular archdiocese of Ninibi, and shortly thereafter appointed him canon of the Lateran Basilica and chief chaplain of the papal army. For reasons that have remained obscure, in 1850 he suffered an attack from which he fortunately emerged unharmed. Raised to the dignity of Latin Patriarch of Antioch, he spent the long years of his old age in blindness, devoted to his favourite historical studies and to carrying out delicate tasks entrusted to him by the Pope, who held him in great esteem, especially at the time of the Vatican Council.
His name is associated with the constant and special friendship that bound him to G. G. Belli, whose first collection of verses he published at his own expense. Appointed executor of the poet’s will, with the task of destroying all the unpublished production—that is, almost all the Roman sonnets—he disregarded Belli’s wishes, thus preserving for posterity so outstanding a poetic work. Among T.’s writings deserving mention are: I concili generali (4 vols., Rome 1867–69; the French version by J.-A. Doussot was made from the manuscript, ibid. 1867–69) and I Concili Lateranensi (ibid. 1878).
Renzo U. Montini