CATALANI, MICHELE. - Nobleman of Fermo, where he was born on 27 Sept. 1750; died in Bologna on 10 May 1805. He was a pupil in the local Jesuit schools under the Morelli and Lanzi. Admitted into the Society of Jesus on 20 Nov. 1766, after the suppression (1773) he became part of the diocesan clergy and devoted himself to historical and archaeological research, rising to great fame.
On 18 March 1782 he was appointed canon of the Metropolitan Church. He was buried in the Charterhouse of Bologna.
A scholar of strong character, he left many works, all distinguished by judicious criticism and elegant literary style, especially in Latin. Among them are: 1) Delle origini dei Piceni (Fermo 1777); 2) Origini e antichità ferme (ibid. 1778), both included in the Antichità picene of G. Colucci (I and II); 3) Memorie della Zecca e delle monete fermane (Bologna 1782), inserted in vol. III of the Nuova raccolta delle monete e Zecche d'Italia by G. A. Zanetti; 4) De Ecclesia Firmana, eiusque episcopis et archiepiscopis commentarius (Fermo 1783), which all later historians, both from Fermo and elsewhere, have drawn upon; 5) Memorie storiche di S. Vittoria V. e m. (Camerino 1778, Fabriano 1807).
He edited the commentary of Aeneas S. Piccolomini (Pius II) De rebus Basilicae gestis stante vel dissoluto concilio according to the forgotten Vatican manuscript (Fermo 1803), and produced a 2nd ed., with changes and additions, of the Vita of St. Fernando, Benedictine abbot, described by G. Marsigliano (ibid. 1784). Also highly important is his commentary De vita et scriptis Dominici Capranica (ibid. 1793). Other works remained unpublished.