VENTIMIGLIA, MARIANO. - Carmelite, general and historiographer of the Order, b. at Vatolla (Salerno) on 18 February 1703, d. at Naples on 28 April 1790.
Professed at the Carmine Maggiore in Naples, after several years of teaching philosophy and theology at Piacenza and then at Naples, he became there regent of studies, prior, and commissary general. He was subsequently elected provincial of the Neapolitan province (1758), assistant general (1759), and prior general of the Order (1762–68). An esteemed theologian and preacher, he devoted himself chiefly to the history of the Order, publishing three works still highly regarded today: Degli uomini illustri del regal convento del Carmine Maggiore di Napoli (Naples, 1756); Historia chronologica priorum generalium latinorum Ordinis B. V. M. de Monte Carmelo (ibid., 1773; Rome, 1929), biographies of the Carmelite generals from the beginning of the Order until 1773, with accounts of the most notable events occurring during the generalate of each of them; Il sacro Carmelo italiano (Naples, 1779), a historical-statistical outline of the Order in Italy in the eighteenth century, of particular interest because it was composed shortly before the suppressions.