ROCCA, ANGELO. - Bishop and scholar, born in Rocca Contrada (Arcevia) in 1545, died in Rome on 8 April 1620. At the age of seven he entered the Augustinian Hermits in Camerino and received a solid humanistic, philosophical, and theological education.
Doctor of theology at Padua in 1577, he was incorporated into that faculty and in 1579 was appointed secretary of his Order. Sixtus V then placed him in charge of the Vatican Press, which was to oversee the publication of the Bible and the Fathers. He played a part in the preparation of the printing of the Vulgate, but Sixtus V acted on his own authority, and Rocca’s efforts to excuse him were in vain. He later participated, under Gregory XIV, in the edition published by Clement VIII and attended to the printing or reprinting of works, including those of G. Biel, Giles of Rome, Augustine Triumphus, and some by St. Bonaventure. Pontifical sacristan in 1595, he was appointed titular bishop of Tagaste on 31 January 1605. He had the opportunity to assemble a most select library, which in 1614 he arranged to belong to the convent of S. Agostino in Rome. It took its name from him, the Angelica; provided with its own revenues under the administration of an Augustinian prefect and theologian, it was later enlarged by the addition of the collections of Lukas Holste, Cardinal Noris (d. 1704), and Cardinal Passionei. After the suppressions of 1873 it became part of the national patrimony.
In addition to editing others’ works, Rocca published: *Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana* (Rome 1591); *De canonizatione sanctorum* (ibid. 1601 and 1610); *De campanis* (ibid. 1612) and other works (though not all) collected in *Opera Omnia*, 2 vols. (ibid. 1719 and then 1745). Cf. G. Novaes, *Dissertazioni storico-critiche*, Rome 1822, vol. II, p. 69.