BERTI, GIOVANNI LORENZO. - Theologian of the Hermit Order of St. Augustine, a distinguished representative of the Augustinian school in the 18th century. Born at Seravezza on 27 June 1696, died at Florence on 26 May 1766. Having entered the Augustinian Hermits as a youth (1711), he taught philosophy and theology at Pavia, Florence, Rome, and Siena; he was prefect of the Angelica Library and general assistant of his Order. Benedict XIV held him in high esteem. At the command of his superior general, Antonio Schiaffinati, he wrote a comprehensive synthesis of theology: *De theologicis disciplinis libri 37*, expounding the thought of St. Augustine and the Augustinian tradition, a work of erudition and sound doctrine that still commands the esteem of scholars. It went through many editions. In 1765 Girolamo Buzi added the *Loci theologici* and made a very widely used compendium of it as a school manual.
Controversies arose; it seemed to some, especially in France, that Berti had revived the doctrines of Baius and Jansenism. Jean d’Yse de Saléon even wrote a work entitled: *Le baianisme et le jansénisme ressuscités dans les livres de Bellelli et B.*; in the same vein wrote Giovanni Giuseppe Languet, archbishop of Sens, and two letters were sent to Benedict XIV requesting his intervention. The Pope had the *De theologicis disciplinis* examined, and it was instead commended for its erudition and sound doctrine. At the Pope’s advice Berti replied to his accusers: to the first with the writing *Augustinianum systema de gratia ab iniqua baianismi et jansenismi erroris insimulatio vindicatum*; to the second with *In opusculum inscriptum: I. Languet iudicium de operibus FF. Bellelli et B. aequissima expostulatio*, both repeatedly reprinted.
Despite Berti’s vigorous reply and the Pope’s favor, his opponents did not remain silent, and Berti found himself compelled to continue the controversy.
Appointed professor of history at the University of Pisa, he wrote *Historia ecclesiastica seu dissertationes ecclesiasticae* (4 vols., Bassano 1769); concerning this work he was accused by Fr. Francesco Antonio Zaccaria of having imitated the *Historia* of Alessandro Natale. Berti defended himself and made a compendium of his history: *Historiae eccl. breviarium*, very widely used, later continued by Tirso Lopez down to 1888 (Valladolid 1889), and subsequently revised and updated by A. Saraceno of the Oratory, who published it under his own name (Turin 1892).
Besides the works cited, cf. *De rebus gestis s. Augustini commentariis* (Venice 1769); *70 Dissertationi storico-domatriche* (Florence 1759); *Panegirici sacri e profani* (ibid. 1764).