FERRARI, PAOLO AGOSTINO. - A Genoese Benedictine of the 17th century. He professed in 1649 at the monastery of S. Girolamo di Cervara near Genoa; a few years later he moved to Montecassino, where he cultivated his studies with love.
Making extensive use, as he himself states, of the work of his confrere Angelo della Noce, he prepared a critical edition of the Rule of St Benedict: *Sanctissimi Patriareche Benedicti Regula ex vetustissimis membrais*, Monasterii Casinensis (Naples 1659). The work is enriched with numerous historical notes that still render it useful today. Two further editions were printed by the Abbey of Montecassino in 1872 and 1888.
Bibl.: M. Armellini, *Bibliotheca Benedictina-Casinensis*, II, Assisi, p. 119; M. Ziegelbauer, *Historia rei litterariae O. S. B.*, III, Augsburg 1754, p. 11; G. Morin, *Regulae S. Benedicti traditio locum mss. Casinensium*, Montecassino 1900, pp. x–xi; A. Albareda, *Bibliografia de la Regla Benedictina*, Montserrat 1933, pp. 87, 411, 542, 560.