BALDUCCI, NICOLA. - Ascetical writer, b. in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century, d. in 1684. An apostolic acolyte, then an Oratorian, he was esteemed for his piety and learning. As a deputy of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide he presented to Urban VIII the letters of homage from the newly converted king of the Congo. A friend of Card. Petrucci, he had dealings with the quietist Malaval (v.). He wrote a great deal, but there is no complete bibliography of his works (originals and translations), because many of these were published anonymously or under a pseudonym.
Among his original works mention should be made of: Il Battesimo spirituale, cioè considerazioni delle cerimonie, ecc., Rome 1668, under the pseudonym Baldo Nicolucci, to which he later added: Riflessioni sopra il Battesimo spirituale, Vita di due venerabili servi di Dio, Angelo Fiorucci e Bartolomeo Tanari (Rome 1671, under the pseudonym Lucio Labacci); Vita di s. Nilo (Rome 1628); Cento considerazioni sopra la dignità sacerdotale (s.l.s.d.); Compendio della vita di s. Filippo Neri (under the pseudonym Giovanni Forti; s.l.s.d.); Soliloqui devoti sopra la Passione (s.l.s.d.). He also published Ignitum cum Deo soliloquium... by P. Gerlach (v.). He further translated the Lettere del B. Giovanni d'Avila (part 3), prefixing to it a compendium of the life of the same (s.l.s.d.).
There are also attributed to him oratorios, spiritual poems, novenas, meditations. The manuscripts of his unpublished works are to be found in the Vallicelliana library in Rome.
He spread in Italy, though in good faith, quietist ideas through his translations, placed on the Index in 1688, of the works of F. Malaval (Pratica facile in forma di dialogo per elevare l'anima alla contemplazione, Rome 1672, under the pseudonym Don Lucio Labacci) and of G. Falconi (Alfabeto per saper leggere in Cristo libro di vita eterna, Rome 1665, anonymous).
Bibliography3 works
Francesco Tinello