GALIANI, CELESTINO. — Monk and abbot of the Celestines, born at S. Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia) on 8 October 1681, died at Naples on 26 July 1753. A most learned man, he taught moral theology and Sacred Scripture at the Celestine College of S. Eusebio in Rome (1707–18), then dogmatic theology and ecclesiastical history at the Sapienza (1718–23); he was subsequently appointed procurator (1723–28) and then abbot general (1728–31) of the Order. In that year he was promoted to the archbishopric of Taranto, which the following year (1732) he exchanged for the office of major chaplain of the Kingdom of Naples, to which the titular archbishopric of Thessalonica was attached.
G. was extensively employed in important negotiations; in 1727 he was commissioned by Charles VI of Austria to settle with the Holy See the question of the Legation of Sicily; in 1737–41 he negotiated and brought to completion the Concordat between the Holy See and the king of Naples, Carlo di Borbone, who had also appointed him his counsellor and chancellor of the Order of S. Carlo. From 1741 until his death he was also president of the mixed tribunal.
As major chaplain he was also director and general prefect of studies in the Kingdom; from 1732 to 1736 he carried out an important reform of the University, which until then had been almost entirely detached from every cultural movement. In his report he acknowledged the right of private education to exist and affirmed the necessity of close cooperation between public and private instruction. He obliged university professors to present the subject matter of the official curriculum and no other; private teachers, however, who wished to do so, were granted permission to open schools, after examination before the major chaplain.
He published no works, apart from his academic thesis and official reports. He should also be remembered as the uncle and educator of Ferdinando G.