BELLATI, ANTONIO FRANCESCO. - Orator and writer, born at Camporeggiano in Garfagnana on 2 Nov. 1665. Having entered the Society of Jesus at Bologna on 24 May 1681, he taught letters for five years at Parma in the Jesuit college; but after his theological studies he was assigned to preaching, in which, for some years and from numerous pulpits in Italy, he achieved notable success owing to his oratorical talent. Having withdrawn from the pastoral ministry because of ill health, he taught privately at Ferrara, where he was admitted to the Academy of the Arcadians under the name Ascreo Larissimo. He ended his life at Piacenza, where he was rector of the Society’s college, on 1 Nov. 1742.
As a writer, Mazzuchelli considered him one of the most learned and polished men the Society had had in Italy. His literary work (cf. Sommervogel, I, cols. 1255-59; VIII, cols. 1887-88) consists chiefly of sermons, panegyrics, funeral orations, and also ascetical treatises, some of which (Le obbligazioni di un marito cristiano, Padova 1711; Arte di raccomandarsi a Dio o sia la virtù dell'orazione, Piacenza 1731) went through several editions and translations. A complete edition of his works appeared at Venice in 4 vols. (1742-47), and almost simultaneously another at Ferrara (1744-47), edited by Andrea Barotti. At the beginning of the fourth volume of the latter is a Vita of B.