Bartolomeo Sorio (1805–1867): a Veronese Oratorian scholar

Bartolomeo Sorio was born in Verona on 4 September 1805 to Sante Sorio and Caterina Righetti. He was a priest of the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, a philologist, a linguist, and a literary critic. His work stands at the intersection of a profound ecclesiastical vocation and a tireless devotion to philological studies. He died on the morning of 14 April 1867.

Education and intellectual awakening

Bartolomeo attended the Veronese ginnasio, where his master in rhetoric was the Abbot Giuseppe Monterossi, who provided him with the essential tools of textual analysis and linguistic precision. But it was his entry into the Congregation of the Oratory, on 1 October 1830, that marked the turning point: there he had as his master the celebrated Antonio Cesari (1760–1828), one of the greatest Italian philologists of the nineteenth century and a restorer of the language of the Trecento. Sorio thus stepped into the furrow of the Veronese purist school, which would mark the whole of his scholarly output.

The Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri at Verona, officially instituted on 20 April 1713 by decree of Bishop Gianfrancesco Barbarigo, was an environment particularly congenial to Sorio’s erudite inclinations, combining communal life with considerable intellectual freedom. He was assigned to the church of Sant’Eufemia in Verona.

The context: Verona under Austria

Sorio’s life unfolded almost entirely under Habsburg rule over Verona, a city that became part of the Kingdom of Italy only in 1866, just a year before his death. The intellectual climate was inevitably shaped by the repression of liberal and nationalist movements. His decision to concentrate on religious studies and medieval philology represented a field of research less exposed to censorship, while still contributing — through the valorisation of Italy’s cultural heritage — to that process of building national identity which characterised the Risorgimento.

The philological work

Sorio distinguished himself as a «scholar of criticism, linguistics, and philology», with a meticulous approach aimed at restoring texts «to their true reading» and making them «better ordered for easier study».

Principal works

He also studied Brunetto Latini, Iacopone da Todi and Boccaccio’s Filocolo. He exchanged Dantean letters with Luigi Bennassuti and Francesco Longhena in Milan. His work as a «lexicographer and editor of vernacular translations», with a particular focus on the Esopo volgare, is the subject of a recent publication by Cecilia Sideri.

Saint Catherine of Siena

The four-volume edition of Saint Catherine’s letters (1842–1844) represents one of Sorio’s most significant contributions. A study by E. Dupré Theseider (1936) also reveals an earlier, unfinished editorial project, attesting to a deep and sustained interest in this great figure of Italian medieval mysticism.

The Catholic interpretation of Dante

With The true Catholic conception of Dante’s Divine Comedy (c. 1845), Sorio entered the lively nineteenth-century critical debate on Dante’s work, proposing a reading anchored in Catholic doctrine. His competence in Dantean matters is attested by his entry in the Enciclopedia Dantesca. In 2022, Veronica Gobbato (University of Verona) published an edition of a Lezione accademica by Sorio, drawn from the papers of the Civic Library of Verona, in the volume Aggiornamenti sulla «Commedia» (Longo Editore).

Intellectual network

Sorio was not an isolated scholar. His correspondence with Fra Agostino Morini of the Order of the Servants of Mary (1861–1864), published by F.M. Berlasso in 2001 (Carteggio di Agostino Morini O.S.M., Rome, Edizioni Marianum, 2 volumes), attests to bonds with scholars of other religious orders.

Two volumes preserved at the University Library of Padua bear autograph dedications from Sorio to Professor Roberto Visiani (1800–1878), an eminent botanist of the Paduan athenaeum, indicating contacts that extended beyond strictly philological fields.

The legacy: the Fondo Bartolomeo Sorio

The most important bequest is the «Fondo Bartolomeo Sorio» at the Civic Library of Verona: 21 folders (numbered 887 to 907) containing letters and philological manuscripts. To these are added the manuscripts that Sorio personally collected and left in legacy to the library in 1867:

Already in 1867, the year of his death, R. Bisoffi published in Florence Brevi cenni intorno alla vita e agli scritti del padre B.S.. The entry dedicated to him in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Volume 93, p. 785) was written by Gabriele Scalessa.

Chronology

Principal sources: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Treccani), vol. 93; Enciclopedia Dantesca; Fondo Bartolomeo Sorio, Civic Library of Verona; F.M. Berlasso, Carteggio di Agostino Morini O.S.M., Rome 2001.