ROCCA, ANGELO. — Bishop and scholar, born at Rocca Contrada (Arcevia) in 1545, died in Rome on 8 April 1620. At the age of seven he entered the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine at Camerino, where he received a solid humanistic, philosophical, and theological education.
Having obtained a doctorate in theology at Padua in 1577 and been incorporated into that Faculty, he was appointed secretary of his
Order in 1579. Sixtus V then placed him at the head of the Vatican Printing Press, which was to oversee the editions of the Bible and the Fathers. He took part in preparing the printing of the Vulgate, but Sixtus V proceeded on his own authority, and R. tried in vain to excuse him. He subsequently took part under Gregory XIV in the edition published by Clement VIII, and supervised the printing or reprinting of works, including those of G. Biel, Egidio Colonna, Agostino Trionfo, and several works by St. Bonaventure. Papal sacristan in 1595, he was appointed titular bishop of Tagaste on 31 January 1605. He had the opportunity to assemble a very select library, which in 1614 he decreed should belong to the convent of S. Agostino in Rome. It took its name from him, becoming the Angelica; endowed with its own revenues and placed under the direction of an Augustinian prefect and theologian, it was subsequently enlarged through the addition of the collections of Luca Holstein, Cardinal Noris (d. 1704), and Cardinal Passione; after the suppressions of 1873, it became part of the national patrimony.
In addition to editions of the works of others, R. published Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (Roma 1591); De canonizzazione sanctorum (ivi 1601 and 1610); De campanis (ivi 1612), and others included (though not all) in Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (ivi 1719 and subsequently 1745). Cf. G. Novaes, Dissertazioni storico-critiche, Roma 1822, vol. II, p. 69.