Gaetano Moroni

He was the author of the well-known Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica (Dictionary of historical-ecclesiastical learning).

Apprenticed later to a barber, his duties frequently took him to the Camaldolese Monastery of Saint Gregory the Great on the Coelian Hill.

Among the books of the monastery and of the cardinal, as well as from conversations with learned people, Moroni acquired a vast store of information.

He also gradually collected a considerable private library bearing on ecclesiastical questions, while he made notes from daily papers and from other publications for his own instruction.

The subsequent arrangement of these notes in order suggested to him the idea of turning his labours to the benefit of the public, an idea which he realized in the Dictionary, a mine of interesting data and authoritative in matters concerning the Pontifical Court, the organization of the Curia and the Church, and the administration of the Papal States.