ALMICI, CAMILLO

Oratorian scholar; b. Brescia, Italy, June 2, 1714; d. there, 1779. Camillo, inclined from boyhood to learning and piety, joined the Brescia Oratory at the age of 19. After his ordination he spent his life in this community, becoming a distinguished theologian, apologist, and critical scholar, expert particularly in Hebrew, Greek, and Scripture. He was also well acquainted with church history and patristic writings, in fact with the whole field of secular history and archeology. As a scholar, he made himself accessible to other scholars and students, and was much consulted. As an Oratorian priest, he was a popular preacher and confessor. His writings include Riflessioni su di un libro di Giustino Febronio (Lucca 1766); Critica contro le opere del pericoloso Voltaire (Brescia 1771); Dissertazione sopra i martiri della Chiesa cattolica (Brescia 1765); Meditazione sopra la vita e gli scritti di Paolo Sarpi (Brescia 1765), in which he points out the tendentiousness and unreliability of Sarpi's history of the Council of Trent; and a dissertation on the art of writing biography and autobiography. Almici published some small works under the anagrammatic pseudonyms Callimaco Limi, and Callimaco Mili.

Bibliography: c. toussaint, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 1.1:898. p. guerrini, Le Congregazione dei Padri della Pace (Brescia 1933). Hurter Nomencl 5.1:224–225. a. palmieri, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912—) 2:658.

[j. challenor]