ANSALDO. - The following belonged to this family: 1) CASTO INNOCENZO - Dominican theologian, exegete and historian, one of the greatest scholars of his time, b. at Piacenza on 7 May 1710, d. at Turin in the early days of May 1780.
Having entered the Dominicans at Brescia in 1726, he studied at Milan, Bosco (Alessandria), Bologna, Genoa, Rome. After becoming a priest (1734), he taught throughout his life philosophy, theology, biblical exegesis and Hebrew in the schools of the Order (Naples, Brescia) and above all in the Universities of Naples (1735-38), Ferrara (1750-56), and Turin for more than 20 years (from 1757 until his death). Opposed to scholasticism, he was at odds with his Order, with which he was reconciled in 1744 through the efforts of Card. A. M. Querini and Benedict XIV. He was in contact with Roman ecclesiastics of Jansenist sympathies; his extensive correspondence with Msgr. G. G. Bottari from 1754 onward (unpublished: holdings of the Corsiniana library, Rome) is of interest for understanding the reformist tendencies of the time.
A.'s literary output is vast and rich in erudition; it aims to refute the philosophism of his day by means of sound historical and archaeological criticism.
Pre-eminent among his works on the Old Testament are: Patriarchae Iosephi Aegypti olim Praegis religio (against J. Basnage who, in Antiquités hébraïques, 1713, accused Joseph of ambition and superstition), Naples 1738, Venice 1741 (under the title De Veteri Aegyptiorum idololatria ac moribus), Brescia 1747, in which he makes use of the Egyptology of the time; De forensi Iudaeorum buccina, Brescia 1745 (and in vol. XXVII of B. Ugolini's Thesaurus Antiq. sacrarum, Venice 1763); De futuro sueculo ab Hebraeis ante captivitatem cogcito (against Jean Le Clerc who denied that immortality was taught in the Old Testament), Milan 1748.
On the New Testament: Herodiani infanticidii vindiciae (against Gius. Scaligero), with the appended shrewd critical study De loco Iohannis (1, 13) alter atque habet Volgata a nonnullis Patribus lecto, Brescia 1746, in which he asserts the necessity of positive theology; there followed (against the Brescian priest Pietro Barzani who denied authority to the biblical citations of the Fathers) the learned De authenticis SS. Scripturarum apud SS. Patres lectionibus II. duo, Verona 1747, Brescia 1749; De baptismate in Spiritu S. et igni commentarius sacri filologico-criticus, Milan 1752.
On the history of the early Church: De causis inopia veterum monumentorum pro copia martyrum dignosceuda, Milan 1740, and De martyribus sine sanguine, ibid. 1744; replies to Henry Dodwell who maintained the small number of martyrs and discredited the martyrologies; Multitudo maxima eorum qui prioribus Ecclesiae saeculis christianam religionem professi sunt (against the work of David Clarkson, London 1688), Turin 1772.
On ethics: De principiorum legis naturalis traditione II. tres (he was the first to propound the thesis of traditionalism), Milan 1742; Vindiciae Maupertuisianae, Venice 1754, in which, together with Maupertuis, he maintains that Stoicism did not have a coherent moral system, and which provoked a long controversy with Fr. M. Zanotti and others; Saggio intorno alle immaginazioni e alle rappresentazioni della felicità somma, Turin 1775; Riflessioni sopra i mezzi di perfezionare la filosofia morale, ibid. 1778.
On theology: Della necessità e verità della religione naturale e rivelata, Venice 1755; Della speranza e della consolazione di rivedere i cari nostri nell'altra vita, Turin 1772, Bassano 1778; Praelectiones theologicae de re sacramentaria, Venice 1792 (reprinted in the Praelect. theol. of P. M. Gazzaniga, XI-XII, Venice 1797).
A. was also a precursor of the study of ancient religions (De diis multarum gentium Roman evocatis, Brescia 1743, Venice 1753, 1761, Oxford 1765; De sacro et publico apud ethnicos tabularum pictarum cultu, Venice 1753, enlarged ed. Turin 1768), particularly of the pagan mysteries (De Theurgia deque theurgicis ethnicorum mysteriis a divo Paulo memoratis, Milan 1761).
2) CARLO AGOSTINO - Brother of the preceding, b. at Piacenza on 23 Sept. 1711, d. after 1762, also a Dominican, he distinguished himself as a preacher. He published several discourses and panegyrics, and translations into Italian verse of the poem De ingratis by St. Prosper of Aquitaine (Venice 1753; another translation by F. Anfossi, ibid. 1802) and of the Contra Symmachum of Prudentius (ibid. 1754).
3) PIETRO TOMMASO - A contemporary of the two brothers mentioned above, provost of the cathedral of S. Miniato, he is worthy of mention for the erudite apologetic work De Divinitate D. N. I. Christi, Florence 1754.