Trombelli, Giovanni Crisostomo

TROMBELLI, GIOVANNI CRISOSTOMO. - Scholar, theologian and patrologist, b. 5 March 1697 at Galeazza near Nonantola and d. at Bologna on 7 Jan. 1784.

Having entered in 1713 among the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior, he was professor of philosophy at Candiana (Padua), of theology at Bologna, and an academician of the Institute of Sciences in 1749. He also held important offices in his Congregation, of which in 1760 he became abbot general. T. wrote a great deal and on various subjects with profound erudition, though not always with the necessary critical sense. He began by publishing the Fables of Phaedrus translated into the vernacular (Venice 1735), which were followed by other publications of the same kind. But already in 1740 there appeared at Bologna in six volumes the De cultu Sanctorum dissertationes decem, much esteemed by Benedict XIV. In the second edition (1751) the work was accompanied by Priorum quatuor de cultu Sanctorum dissertationum vindiciae, a serene polemic against the Protestant Johann Rudolf Kiesling, who had attacked the work. Among the other historical-theological publications one may recall the Trattato degli Angeli custodi (Bologna 1747); Vita e culto di s. Giuseppe (ibid. 1767); a full six volumes on the Madonna (B. V. M. vita ac gesta [ibid. 1761]), partly reprinted in Migne's Summa aurea (Paris 1866); at the age of 85 T. completed his 13 vols. on the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Extreme Unction and Matrimony (Tractatus de Sacramentis per polemicas et liturgicas dissertationes dispositi [Bologna 1769-83]), of notable value, especially for the liturgy, despite its long-windedness.

T. was also much interested in patristics. In 1751 he published two volumes Veterum Patrum Latinorum opuscula, among which are noted various apocrypha of St. Jerome, the treatise Echartatio ad poenitentiam attributed to St. Cyprian, the De benedictionibus Patriarcharum attributed to St. Paulinus of Milan (cf. A. Wilmart, Le commentaire des bénédictions de Jacob attribué à Paulin de Milan, in Revue bénéd., 32 [1920], pp. 57-63) and other works of Bede, of Leo the Great, of St. Hilary, more than one of which, however, is spurious or doubtful. The little book Arte di conoscere l'età de' codici latini e italiani (Bologna 1756), in its conciseness - a rather rare characteristic in the author - is a fine contribution to the study of paleography, so much cultivated in that century. For local and Congregation history the learned Ricerche istoriche concernenti le due canoniche di S. Maria in Reno e di S. Salvatore (ibid. 1752) are still useful.

Angelo Perna