GIOSEPPE AGOSTINI. — Jesuit moralist, b. in Palermo on 15 March 1575, d. there on 29 May 1643. He taught philosophy in Rome and theology in Lyon, Avignon, and Palermo, where for eighteen years he served as prefect of studies.
He published: *Nucleus casuum conscientiae*... (Palermo 1638); a work that enjoyed great success, reaching more than fifty editions in a century (many under the title: *Brevis notitia eorum quae scitu vel necessaria vel valde utilia sunt confessariis*); *Commentarii in primam partem Summae S. Thomae* (Palermo 1639).
BIBL.: Mazzuchelli, I, p. 214; Sommervogel, I, cols. 69-73; E. Aguilera, *Provinciae Siculae Societatis Iesu ortus et res gestae*, II, Palermo 1760, pp. 416-18.