Ballerini, Pietro and Girolamo

BALLERINI, bɑ̄l´´la-rî´nî, PIETRO and GIROLAMO: Brothers, of Verona, distinguished by their joint labors in church history and canon law; b., the former, Sept. 7, 1698, the latter, Jan. 29, 1702; d., Pietro, Mar. 28, 1769, Girolamo, Apr. 23, 1781. Both were educated in the Jesuits’ school in Verona and became secular priests. Pietro for a time was at the head of the Accademia delle belle lettere in Verona and spent eighteen months in Rome (1748-50) as counselor to the Venetian ambassador there, during which time he made good use of exceptional opportunities for investigation. Both brothers devoted the greater part of their lives to studies in common and produced, with other works, editions of the Sermones of St. Zeno of Verona (Verona, 1739; in MPL, xi); of the Summa theologica of St. Antoninus of Florence (4 vols., Verona, 1740); of the Summa de pœnitentia of St. Raymond of Pennaforte (1744); of the Opera of Pope Leo the Great (3 vols., Venice, 1753-57; MPL, liv-lvi), one of the most important pieces of editorial work of the eighteenth century, with an appendix on the collections of canons before Gratian; and of the Opera of Ratherius, Bishop of Verona (Verona, 1765; MPL, cxxxvi). Pietro also participated in literary controversies of his time and defended the absolute papacy with learning and zeal. His two last works, De potestate ecclesiastica sanctorum pontificum et conciliorum generalium . . . contra opus J. Febronii (1765) and De vi ac ratione primatus pontificum (1766), have been edited by E. W. Westhoff (Münster, 1845-47, and an appendix to the former on papal infallibility was translated into German by A. J. Binterim (Düsseldorf, 1843).

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: G. M. Mazzuchelli, Gli Scrittori d’Italia, vol. ii, part 1, 178-185, 6 parts, Brescia, 1753-65; L. Federici, Elogi istorici de’ più illustri ecclesiastici Veronesi, iii, 69-120, Verona, 1819.