MANSI, GIOVANNI DOMENICO

Catholic theologian; b. Lucca, Italy, Feb. 16, 1692;d. Lucca, Sept. 27, 1769. With his entry in 1710 into the marian fathers, Mansi began his career as a theologian. He taught moral theology for several years in Naples; then Abp. Fabio Colloredo recalled him to Lucca, where Mansi founded an academy for Church history and liturgy. In 1765 he was named archbishop of Lucca by clement xiii. The only one of Mansi's independent works of note is his Tractatus de casibus et excommunicationibus episcopis reservatis (Lucca 1724). Mansi's real importance lies in his work as an editor, publishing about 90 volumes during his lifetime. His famous collection of the acts of the councils down to 1440 was based substantially on the older collections of N. Coletti, Philippe labbe, and G. Cossart. The older editions, especially the 12-volume Acta Conciliorum of Jean hardouin (down to 1714), are better than Mansi's work; but despite its editorial shortcomings, the Amplissima collectio, which Mansi himself brought only up to volume 14, is the most useful source for conciliar history because of its exhaustiveness. The most important of the other authors brought out in new editions and commented on by Mansi are C. baronius (with O. Raynald's continuation and A. Pagi's critique), pius ii, and É. baluze. Mansi also translated into Latin A. calmet's exegetical writings.

Bibliography: Works. Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 31 v. (Florence-Venice 1759–98); repr. and continued by l. petit and j. b. martin, 53 v. in 60 (Paris 1901–27; repr. Graz 1960–61); microcard ed. from the Microcard Foundation (Washington 1961). Literature. h. quentin, Jean-Dominique Mansi et les grandes collections conciliaires (Paris 1900). g. franceschini, Vita in v. 19 of the Amplissima collectio. d. pacchius, Vita in v.1 of j. a. fabricius, Bibliotheca latina, 6 v. in 3 (Florence 1858–59). r. bÄumer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 6:1365. c. testore, Enciclopedia cattolica 7:1979.

[h. rumpler]