ROCCA, ANGELO. - Bishop and scholar, b. at Rocca Contrada (Arcevia) in 1545, d. at Rome on 8 April 1620. He entered the Hermits of St. Augustine at Camerino at the age of seven and received a solid humanistic, philosophical and theological formation.
A doctor of theology at Padua in 1577 and incorporated into that Faculty, he was appointed in 1579 secretary of his Order. Then Sixtus V placed him at the head of the Vatican Typography, which was to oversee the editions of the Bible and of the Fathers. He had a part in preparing the printing of the Vulgate, but Sixtus V proceeded according to his own judgment and in vain R. attempted to excuse him. He then had a part under Gregory XIV in the edition that was published by Clement VIII, and he attended to the printing or reprinting of works, among which were those of G. Biel, of Giles of Rome, of Augustinus Triumphus and some of St. Bonaventure. Pontifical sacristan in 1595, he was appointed titular bishop of Tagaste on 31 Jan. 1605. He had the leisure to gather a most select library, which in 1614 he arranged should belong to the convent of S. Agostino in Rome. From him it took the name Angelica; endowed with its own revenues under the government of an Augustinian prefect and theologian, it was later enlarged by the accession of those of Luca Holstein, of Card. Noris (d. 1704) and of Card. Passionei; after the suppressions of 1873 it became part of the national patrimony.
Besides the editions of others' works, R. published Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (Rome 1591); De canonizatione sanctorum (ibid. 1601 and 1610); De campanis (ibid. 1612) and others included (but not all) in Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (ibid. 1719 and then 1745). Cf. G. Novaes, Dissertazioni storico-critiche, Rome 1822, vol. II, p. 69.
Bibliography2 works
Pio Paschini