TROMBELLI, GIOVANNI CRISOSTOMO. — Erudite, theologian, and patrologist, b. on 5 March 1697 at Galeazza near Nonantola and d. at Bologna on 7 January 1784.
In 1713 he entered the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior. He was professor of philosophy at Candiana (Padua), of theology at Bologna, and a member of the Academy of the Institute of Sciences in 1749. He also held important offices in his Congregation, of which he became abbot general in 1760. T. wrote extensively on various subjects and with profound erudition, though not always with the necessary critical sense. He began by publishing the Favole di Fedro tradotte in volgare (Venice 1735), followed by other publications of the same kind. But as early as 1740, the De cultu Sanctorum dissertationes decem appeared in Bologna in six volumes, and was highly 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 Giovanni Rodolfo Kiesling, who had attacked the work. Among his other historical-theological publications are the Trattato degli Angeli custodi (Bologna 1747); Vita e culto di s. Giuseppe (there 1767); six volumes on the Madonna (B. V. M. vita ac gesta [there 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 considerable value, especially for the liturgy, despite its prolixity.
T. was also greatly interested in patristics. In 1751 he published two volumes of Veterum Patrum Latinorum opuscula, including various apocrypha of s. Jerome, the treatise Echartatio ad poenitentiam attributed to s. Cyprian, the De benedictionibus Patriarcharum attributed to s. 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 by Bede, Leo the Great, and s. Hilary, more than one of them spurious or doubtful. The booklet Arte di conoscere l'età de' codici latini e italiani (Bologna 1756), in its concision—a rather rare characteristic in the author—is a fine contribution to the study of paleography, which was so widely cultivated in that century. For local and Congregational history, the learned Ricerche istoriche concernenti le due canoniche di S. Maria in Reno e di S. Salvatore (there 1752) remain useful.