Tolomei was born of noble parentage at the ancestral castle of the Counts of
Capraia () in the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, located between
Pistoia and
Florence. At the age of fifteen, after an early schooling at Florence, he studied law at the
University of Pisa. On 18 February 1673 he entered the
Society of Jesus at Rome, and was
ordained a priest in 1684. Although later made a cardinal, he was never raised to the rank of
bishop. Tolomei was master of eleven languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
Chaldean,
Syriac, Arabic, English, French, Spanish,
Illyrian, as well as his native Italian. He began his public career at Rome by expounding the
Sacred Scriptures on Sunday evenings in the
Church of the Gesù. At the age of thirty Tolomei was elected in the
General Congregation of the Society as its
Procurator General, an office he held for the next five years, relinquishing it to take the
Chair of Philosophy at the
Roman College (now the
Gregorian University). Here his lecture room was thronged. His lectures were printed in Rome in 1696 under the title of
Philosophia mentis et sensuum, and demonstrated that, while loyal to the principles and method of
Aristotle, he welcomed every discovery of his time in the natural sciences and wove these into his course. The lectures were reprinted in 1698 in Germany and evoked praise from the noted philosopher,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Tolomei later filled the Chair of Theology at the Roman College and revived the courses in controversial dogma begun by St.
Robert Bellarmine a century earlier. These lectures in manuscript form filled six volumes in
folio but were never printed. Successively
Rector of the Roman College and of the
German College, he was at the same time Consultor to the
Sacred Congregation of Rites, as well as of the
Index, and of
Indulgences, in addition to being one of the appointed examiners of bishops. On 17 May 1712, unexpectedly created a cardinal by
Pope Clement XI, with the title of
Santo Stefano al Monte Coelio, Tolomei became chief adviser to the pope in matters of theology, particularly in the preparation of the condemnation of the ideas of
Pasquier Quesnel. As cardinal he assisted at the
conclaves which elected
Pope Innocent XIII and
Pope Benedict XIII. Tolomei died at Rome at the Roman College, and was buried before the high altar of the Jesuit
Church of St. Ignatius there. ==Works==