Angelico Aprosio

Aprosio was born into a wealthy family in Ventimiglia. As a young man he felt called to the religious life and persevered in this early vocation in spite of the desire of his parents to have their only son study law or medicine. He entered the Augustinian order on March 19, 1623, while still but 15 years of age, changing his baptismal name of Ludovico to Angelico, probably from that of an uncle who had been a famous preacher in the Order. He spent the year of his novitiate and two years after his profession in the convent of his Order at Genoa, after which time he sought permission from his superiors to go to Tuscany, and was sent to the Convent of Sant'Agostino in Siena, where he remained six years. In 1639 he was appointed professor of belles-lettres, at the convent of St. Stephen in Venice, and subsequently Vicar general of the Congregation of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Genoa. He acquired a high reputation by his numerous works on literary criticism and other subjects, among which are a moral essay against the luxury and extravagance of women, entitled "The Shield of Rinaldo," ("Lo Scudo di Rinaldo," 1642,) and "La Grillaia" (1673), a miscellany of literary and antiquarian researches. In his critical writings he defended Giambattista Marino against Tommaso Stigliani, but he also opposed Arcangela Tarabotti in the debate over the oppression of women. Today Aprosio is best remembered for his "La Biblioteca Aprosiana," (1673) one of the earliest and most comprehensive select bibliographies of Italian literature. The first part of the volume contains his autobiography and the account of his correspondence. The second part is a partial catalogue of the books, arranged under the first names of the donors in alphabetical order. Both parts are replete with biographical and bibliographical notes, many of great length. Johann Christoph Wolf, the compiler of the standard Bibliotheca hebraea (4 vols., Hamburg, 1715 – 33), translated the Biblioteca into Latin (Hamburg, 1734) and provided it with a necessary index containing the names of both donors and authors. Aprosio founded in his native city a library called "Aprosiana", established in 1648 at the Augustinian monastery of Ventimiglia. The Aprosian Library housed over ten thousand volumes and was officially recognized in 1653 by Pope Innocent X, who issued a ban prohibiting the sale of any of its books and opened it to the public. In the following years, Aprosio dedicated himself to expanding the library, enlarging the monastery to hold its volumes, and compiling its catalogue. The Aprosian Library was partly dispersed in 1798 upon the arrival of French troops and the suppression of the Augustinian order. Part of the collection ended up in the National Library of Genoa. Today the library hosts a collection of approximately twenty-six thousand volumes about seven thousand of which make up the 'fondo antico' (16th-17th century editions). The library owns almost two hundred incunabula and ancient manuscripts as well as a picture gallery comprising the portrait of Aprosio himself, executed by Carlo Ridolfi in 1647. Aprosio was a member of several academies and learned societies, including the Incogniti of Venice, the Apatisti of Florence, the Geniali of Codogno, the Ansiosi of Gubbio, the Infecondi of Rome, and the Eterocliti of Pesaro. His contemporaries regarded him as a veritable fount of learning. Raffaele Soprani, who knew him personally, says that he had no equal in his knowledge of authors, ancient and modern; and adds that he himself is much indebted to him for contributions to his own work on the writers of Liguria. He numbered among his correspondents several of the most distinguished men of his time, including Agostino Lampugnani, Fortunio Liceti, Nicolás Antonio, Juan Caramuel, Antoine Godeau, Johann Friedrich Gronovius, Nicolas Steno, Johann Vesling, Caspar Schoppe and the scholar and scientist Thomas Bartholin. == Works ==