ANTONIO , Italian philosopher, was born at Rovereto, Italian Tirol, on March 25, 1797. In 1828 he founded a new religious order, the Institute of the Brethren of Charity, known in Italy generally as the Rosmin ians. The members might be priests or laymen, who devoted them selves to preaching, the education of youth, and works of charity— material, moral and intellectual. They have branches in Italy, England, Ireland, France and America. In London they are at tached to the church of St. Etheldreda, Ely Place, Holborn. Ros mini's The Five Wounds of the Holy Church and The Constitution of Social Justice were placed (1849) upon the Index. Rosmini at once declared his submission and retired to Stresa on Lago Maggiore, where he died on July 1, 1855. Before his death he had the satisfaction of learning that the works in question were dis missed, that is, proclaimed free from censure by the Congregation of the Index. Twenty years later, the word "dismissed" (dimit tantur) became the subject of controversy, some maintaining that it amounted to a direct approval, others that it was purely negative and did not imply that the books were free from error. The con troversy continued till 1887, when Leo XIII. finally condemned 40 of his propositions and forbade their being taught.
The most comprehensive view of Rosmini's philosophical stand point is to be found in his Sistema filosofico, in which he set forth the conception of a complete encyclopaedia of the human know able, synthetically conjoined, according to the order of ideas, in a perfectly harmonious whole. Rosmini laid down ideal being as the fundamental principle of all philosophy and the supreme cri terion of truth and certainty.
Of his numerous works--collected ed. (17 vols., Milan, 1842-44) supplemented by Opere postume (5 vols., Turin, 1859-74)—the most important are the New Essay on the Origin of Ideas (Eng. trans., 1883) ; The Principles of Moral Science (1831) ; The Restoration of Philosophy in Italy (1836) ; The Philosophy of Right (1841-45). The following have also been translated into English: A Catholic Catechism, by W. S. Agar (1849) ; The Five Wounds of the Holy Church (abridged trans. with introd. by H. P. Liddon. 1883) ; Maxims of Christian Perfection, by W. A. Johnson (1889) ; Psychology (Anonymous) (1884-88) ; Sketch of Modern Philosophy, by Lockhart (1882) ; The Ruling Principle of Method Applied to Education, by Mrs. W. Grey (Boston, Mass., 1887) ; Select Letters, by D. Gazzola. Rosmini's Sistema filosofico was translated by Thos. Davidson (Rosmini's Philosophical System, 1882, with a biographical sketch and complete bibliography) ; see also Lives by G. S. Macwalter (1883) and G. B. Pagani (1907) ; C. Werner, Die italienische Phil osophie des 19. Jahrhunderts (1884) ; F. X. Kraus, "Antonio Rosmini: rein Leben. seine Schriften," in Deutsche Rundschau, liv. lv. (1888) ; "Church Reformation in Italy" in the Edinburgh Review, cxiv. ( July 1861) ; and numerous recent Italian works, for which Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy or Pagliani's Catalogo Generale (Milan, 1905) should be consulted.