CARACCIOLO, GIAMBATTISTA. — Scholar, mathematician, and historiographer of the Theatines, of the ducal house of S. Vito, born in Naples on 29 Dec. 1695, died at Aversa in 1765. He professed on 1 Jan. 1712 in the convent of the SS. Apostoli in Naples, and there, after completing his studies, he taught philosophy. In 1723 he went to Florence as professor of theology, and from 1730 he held the chair of philosophy and later that of algebra at the University of Pisa. In 1750 he was elected procurator, and in 1759 preposito generale of his Order. Clement XIII, after appointing him consultor of the Rites, created him bishop of Aversa on 16 Feb. 1761.
Principal works: Le due Ifigenie d’Euripide in Aulide e in Tauri tradotte in verso toscano sciolto… (Florence 1729); Divi Cajetani Thienei… vita (composed in 1731 for the Acta of the Bollandists, who preferred the Life written by Antonio Caracciolo [v.]; however, the author published it himself, Pisa 1738); De lineis curvis liber (ibid. 1740); Problemata varia mathematica… (Florence 1755); Gnomonice (Pisa 1756); Geometria Algebra universa… (Rome 1759).
