SINISTRARI, LUDOVICO MARIA. - Canonist, born in Ameno (Island of San Giulio of Orta, Novara) on 26 January 1632, died at Giardini on 6 March 1701.
He studied the humanities at the University of Pavia, where he entered the Franciscans in 1647. He taught philosophy and theology; he specialized in the study of canon and civil law, was a member of the Congregation for the Reform of Regulars, consultant to the Supreme Tribunal of the Inquisition, theologian and vicar of the archbishop of Avignon, highly esteemed theologian of Archbishop Caccia of Milan, emeritus lecturer in his Order, and doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Salamanca and the Sorbonne.
A keen scholar of ecclesiastical criminal law, which was his specialization, he commented on and corrected the *Praxis criminalis* of Santoro da Melfi. His principal work, *Practica criminalis illustrata* (2nd ed., Rome 1753), comprises three large volumes in quarto and constitutes a complete treatise on penal law as applied to ecclesiastics and religious, which still occupies a prominent place in the literature of the genre.