D'ACQUISTO, BENEDETTO. - Philosopher, b. at Monreale in 1790, d. there on 7 Aug. 1867. A Franciscan, he passed through all the ranks of his Order up to the provincialate. He taught philosophy at the colleges of S. Rocco and the Archiepiscopal College, and finally moral philosophy at the university. In 1858 he was appointed archbishop of Monreale.
In philosophy he generally follows the eclectic orientation, developing the principles of the Monreale school, with which he is ideally connected, and with frequent Cartesian and Franciscan-school resonances. He cannot be called an ontologist, although he holds positions that closely recall Miceli and Gioberti. From 1841 he turned his attention to moral problems, drawing here too upon Gioberti and V. Miceli. Principal works: Trattato delle idee o Ideologia (Palermo 1857); Corso di diritto naturale e filosofia del diritto (ibid. 1852).