CASTALDO-PESCARA, GIAMBATTISTA. - Theatrine historian. He professed at S. Paolo Maggiore in Naples, his native city, on 29 May 1586 and died there at the age of 87 on 30 March 1653. He was highly skilled in ecclesiastical sciences and an acclaimed orator.
Among other ascetic and hagiographic works, he wrote: *Vita del b. Gaetano Tiene*... (Modena 1612, Rome 1616, Venice 1627); *Della Vita del p. d. Andrea Avellino*... (Naples 1613, Vicenza 1627, Naples 1733); *Vita del s.mo pontefice Paolo IV*... (Rome 1615, Modena 1618), sober and objective; *De beati Caietani Thieneci cum b. Ignatio Loiola consuetudine*... (Vicenza 1618).
Bibl.: J. Silos, *Historiarum Clericorum Regularium*, III, Rome 1655, p. 588; A. F. Vezzosi, *Scrittori dei Chierici Regolari*..., I, Rome 1780, pp. 244-56. Francesco Andreu