TONDELLI, LEONE. - Exegete and historian, b. at S. Bartolomeo (Reggio Em.) on 5 May 1883, d. at Reggio Emilia on 5 Jan. 1953.
After completing his studies at the diocesan seminary, he was ordained priest on 28 Oct. 1905; in Rome he earned a doctorate in canon law. He then taught exegesis at the diocesan seminary of Reggio Emilia until his death, while also serving as zealous parish priest of Bibbiano (1920) and later as archpriest of the Cathedral (from 1930). Consultor of the Biblical Commission (1935), he was made domestic prelate in 1930.
He published: Odi di Salomone (Rome 1914); Matilda di Canossa (for the centenary of the death of the great Countess, Reggio Emilia 1915); Gesù nella storia (Milan 1925); Il pensiero di s. Paolo (ibid. 1928, Turin 1947); Il mandesime e le origini cristiane (Rome 1928); Le profezie di Ezechiele (Reggio Em. 1930); Mani: rapporti con Bardesane, s. Agostino e Dante (Milan 1932). The final years of his life were his most productive: Gesù Cristo (Turin 1936); Apologia del cattolicesimo (Rome 1939); Il libro delle figure dell’abate Gioachino da Fiore (2 vols., Turin 1940); Gesù secondo s. Giovanni (ibid. 1943); Da Gioachino a Dante (ibid. 1944); Gli gnostici (ibid. 1950); L’Eucaristia vista da un esegue (Alba 1951). Meanwhile, he revised and reorganized his Christological studies into a definitive edition: I Vangeli (Turin 1946); Gesù nei primi Vangeli (ibid. 1947); Il disegno divino nella storia (ibid. 1947).