TOMMASO GALLO (da VERCELLI). — Also called T. di S. Vittore or T. Vercellese, he was already a Regular Canon of the Abbey of S. Vittore in Paris in 1218, when he composed his commentary on Isaiah.
From this time onward he had become familiar with the works of ps.-Dionysius. He came to Italy in the retinue of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri (1219) and founded the monastery of S. Andrea at Vercelli, of which he became prior in 1224 and abbot in 1226. The commentary on the Cantica canticorum and the Glossae in cael. hierarchiam belong to the first years of his residence at Vercelli; the Glossae in mysticam theol. date from 1232, the second commentary on the Cantica from 1237, and the Extractiones from various works of ps.-Dionysius from 1238; the Explan. in mysticam theol. dates from 1241, followed by the Explan. de div. nominibus. In 1238 he hosted the Emperor Frederick II, and in 1243, when Vercelli declared itself Guelph, the abbot took refuge with the Ghibellines in Ivrea. In the same year he published the Explan. de cael. hier. at Vercelli. Deposed because of the support he had given the Ghibellines, he refused to submit and settled once again in Ivrea, where he devoted himself to a third commentary on the Cantica, to the Explan. in eccles. hier., and to other mystical works. He died, perhaps after returning to his abbey, in December