Niccolò Angelisti

Born in Petriolo on June 15^th, 1713 – Died on July 30^th, 1786.
Son of Giuseppe Nicola Angelisti and Minerva Castellani from Montecchio (in the area of Treia).

As a child, he already showed interest for the religious life, and for education. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1736. Then, in 1749, he received the benefice of the Church of Madonna del Suffragio, which belonged to Angelisti family’s properties.

In 1751 Niccolò was nominated public teacher in Petriolo, but some months later, he decided to quit the job.

Before moving to Bologna to study Philosophy, he had attended courses of Grammar and Rhetoric at the Seminary of Fermo. Later, he went to Rome to study Law, then he also moved to Venice and Padua, to study Humanities, Moral Philosophy, Sacred History and the Holy Fathers.

Venice became his second hometown. Indeed, he lived there from 1745 to 1775, making his studies fruitful and printing at Carlo Pecora’s his rhymes in the volume “Delle Rime del Sig. Abbate Niccolò Angelisti”. The booklet is composed of three sections, containing 155 sonnets on several topics. Thanks to Angelisti’s good reputation among intellectuals, the booklet obtained a positive outcome for those times.
Niccolò Angelisti was mentioned by Giovanni Maria Mazzucchelli inside the volume “Gli Scrittori d’Italia”, which contains knowledge about lives and critics of the Italian most important writers. Also Girolamo Tiraboschi from Bergamo, executive director at Modena’s Estense Library, mentioned Angelisti in his “Storia della Letteratura Italiana”.

In 1766 Niccolò Angelisti wrote a work titled “Uffizio della Beata Vergine, con quello de’ fedeli defunti, salmi, graduali, penitenziali e litanie, etc”. The first edition was handled by Sansoni, a well-known Venetian printer. Later, because of its success, the author decided to enrich and to correct it. The last edition was printed in 1783 by the typography Chiappini and Cortesi, in Macerata.

Back to Petriolo in 1775, Niccolò Angelisti spent his last years in the hamlet, dying on July 30^th, 1786 at the age of 73.