BARBIERI (DE BARBERIS), FILIPPO. - Dominican theologian, born at Siracusa circa 1426, died at Palermo in 1487. He taught theology at Catania. From 1476 to 1486 he was general inquisitor in Sicily, Sardinia, and Malta. He was highly esteemed at the Roman Curia and at the Aragonese court. The king of Hungary, Mattia Corvino, honored him with his friendship and assigned him an annual life pension.
He wrote various theological works in elegant Latin; in the most important of these (De animarum immortalitate, divina providentia, mundi gubernatione et hominum praedestinatione atque reprobatione, 1st ed., Rome 1475), he upholds the Thomist doctrine of predestination ante praevia merita.
BIBL.: J. Quétif-J. Echard, Scriptores O. P., I, Paris 1719, p. 873; Gesamthatalog der Wiegenstriche, III, Leipzig 1928, nos. 3384-88; M. A. Coniglione, La Provincia Dom. di Sicilia, Catania 1937, pp. 50, 70-72, 173-75; G. Meerseman-D. Planzer, Magistrorum ac Procuratorum generalium O. P. Registra Litterarum minore (1469-1523) (Mon. O. P. hist., 21), Rome 1947, p. 51. Alfonso D'Amato