CAMALDUNIANS, or CAMALDULITES, an order of religious persons, founded by Romuald, an Italian fanatic, in 1023, in the horrible desert of Camaldoli, otherwise called Campo Malduli, situated in the state of Florence, on the Apennines. Their rule is that of St Benedict; and their houses, by the statutes, can never be less than five leagues from cities. The Camaldulans have not borne that title from the beginning of their order; till the close of the eleventh century they were called Romaldins, from the name of their founder. Previously, Camaldulian was a particular name for those of the desert Camaldoli, and Grandi observes, was not given to the whole order in respect it was in this monastery that the order commenced, but because the regulation was best maintained here.

Guido Grandi, mathematician of the grand duke of Tuscany, and a monk of this order, has published Camaldulian Dissertations on the origin and establishment of the order.

The Camaldulites were distinguished into two classes, of which the one were Cenobites, and the other Eremites.