Spani, ANDREA, educator and author, b. at Florence, August 8, 1716; d. at Rome, September 16, 1788. He entered the Society of Jesus, October 22, 1731, and was employed chiefly in teaching philosophy and theology, though for a time he professed mathematics at the Roman College, and assisted Father Asclepi in his astronomical observations. The most noted of his writings is the work “De Miraculis” (Rome, 1777), which he carefully revised in two succeeding editions (Rome, 1779 and 1785). In this work, besides giving the positive doctrine on the nature and reality of miracles, he has marshaled together with great thoroughness the objections brought forward by the rationalists of his own and preceding times against the chief miracles of the Old and the New Testament, so that the work may be considered as a compendium of the literature of the subject, up to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. His other chief works are: “De Causa efficiente” (Rome, 1764); “De Bono, Maio et Pulchro” (Rome, 1766); “De Mundo” (Rome, 1770); “De Ideis Mentis humane” (Rome, 1772); “De Motu” (Rome, 1774); “De Anima Brutorum” (Rome, 1775); “De Signis Idearum” (Rome, 1781).
EDWARD C. PHILLIPS