SGAMBATI, ANDREAS

Theologian; b. Naples, about 1735; d. Rome, July 17, 1805. Little is known of his early life. He was awarded a doctorate in theology at the Roman College of St. Bonaventure in 1763. He was assigned to assist in the compilation of the Bullarium Franciscanum, and in 1771 was appointed professor of theology and rector of the university college of the Conventual Franciscans in Naples.

His De theologicis institutis (14 v., Naples 1775–82; 2d ed. Madrid 1833) became the prescribed text in seminaries of the Conventuals, was adopted by other religious orders, and in 1830 was made the official text in the seminaries of the Spanish Observants. A second work, De praecipuis locis theologicis, appeared in Naples (2 v.1785). In this year Sgambati was appointed professor at the Roman College of St. Bonaventure and named a consultor to the Congregation of Rites. Unlike many of his Conventual contemporaries, he was inspired more by Bonaventure than by Scotus. He made special efforts to eliminate every trace of enlightenment philosophy from his works. This was, perhaps, the chief source of his popularity among the adherents of a more traditional orthodoxy.

Bibliography: d. sparacio, Frammenti bio-bibliografici di scrittori ed autori minori conventuali (Assisi 1931). h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 vol. (3rd ed. Innsbruck 1903–13) 5.1. a. teetaert, Dictionnaire de théologie

catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 vol. (Paris 1903–50) 14.2:2018–19.

[p. d. fehlner]