BELLATI, ANTONIO FRANCESCO. – Orator and writer, born at Camporeggiano in Garfagnana on 2 Nov. 1665. He entered the Society of Jesus in Bologna on 24 May 1681, and taught literature for five years at Parma in the Jesuit college. After completing his theological studies, he devoted himself to preaching, in which he enjoyed considerable success for several years on numerous pulpits throughout Italy, thanks to his oratorical talent. Retiring from pastoral ministry on account of failing health, he taught privately in Ferrara, where he was associated with the Accademia degli Arcadi under the name of Ascro Larissimo. He ended his life in Piacenza, where he served as rector of the Jesuit college on 1 Nov. 1742.
As a writer, Mazzuchelli considered him one of the most learned and polished that the Society had produced in Italy. His literary output (cf. Sommervogel, I, cols. 1255–59; VIII, cols. 1887–88) consists mainly of sermons, panegyrics, funeral orations, and also ascetical treatises, some of which (*Le obbligazioni di un marito cristiano*, Padua 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 in Venice in 4 vols. (1742–47), and almost simultaneously another in Ferrara (1744–47), edited by Andrea Barotti. The latter includes, at the head of vol. IV, a *Vita del B.*