GIANNOTTI, PIETRO. – Mystical theologian, born in 1695 at Città di Castello, died on 28 January 1773. He studied in Rome at the Collegio Fuccioli. Ordained a priest, he returned to his native city where, following the resignation of his brother Virgilio (later bishop of Città della Pieve), he was appointed provost of the Cathedral (2 December 1734).
He published interesting works of mystical theology, an outstanding monument to his piety, zeal, and vast learning: Teologia mistica (3 vols., Lucca 1751); Vita della buona serva di Dio suor Angela Moscani cappuccina (Perugia 1757); Ristretto di mistica dottrinale ed esperimentale come pure dell'ascetica che dispone o accompagna alla mistica con sufficienti regole da discernere i spiriti (ibid. 1758), a compendium of the Teologia mistica. The author’s doctrine is solidly founded on the teaching of the greatest Doctors of the Church and the best theologians of the various schools, as well as on the lives of many saints and servants of God, not a few of them contemporaries, such as s. Veronica Giuliani, suor Paola Novelli della Volontà di Dio, suor Caterina Brondi, and suor Chiara Todi. There are frequent condemnations of Molinos’s pseudo-mysticism, characterized as « nemico di ogni mortificazione » (Ristretto, p. 243).