Rocca, Angelo
ROCCA, ANGELO
Humanist and historian; b. Rocca Contrada, Italy, 1545; d. Rome, April 7, 1620. In 1552 he entered the Augustinians in Camerino, studied at Padua where he received his doctorate in 1577, and became in 1585 editor of the Vatican Press for the Bible, general councils, and Patristic works. In 1605 he was made titular bishop of Tagaste. With his excellent book collection he founded the first public library in Rome, the Biblioteca Angelica, named for him. In 1614 he placed it in the care of the convent of St. Agostino, which directed it until 1873 when the state assumed ownership. Rocca wrote more than 60 works and participated in the edition of the Vulgate under Sixtus V and Gregory XV. Many of his ascetical, liturgical, and historical writings were published in an incomplete Opera omnia (2 v. Rome 1719, 1745). He edited five volumes of works by Augustinians, wrote two volumes on St. Augustine and free will, and two volumes on the building activities of Sixtus V.
Bibliography: Cenni biografici di Angelo Rocca (Fabriano 1881). d. a. perini, Bibliographia Augustiniana, 4 v. (Florence 1929–38) 3:126–133.
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