Cesare, a pious and learned cardinal, was born at Sora in 1538. He studied at Rome, and put himself under the discipline of Filippo di Neri, the founder of the congregation of the Oratory; on whose resignation in 1593 Baronius succeeded him as superior. Pope Clement VIII. made him his confessor, and raised him to the rank of cardinal in 1596. He was afterwards made librarian to the Vatican, and died from excessive study in 1607, at the age of sixty-nine. His principal work is his Annales Ecclesiastici, from A.D. 1 to 1198, in 12 vols. folio, Rome, 1588-93, which is characterized by very great learning and ability, and has always been in high esteem in the Church of Rome; though, having been composed with the express object of vindicating that church against the supposed misrepresentations of the Magdeburg Centuriators, it is necessarily partial and imperfect. The best edition, including the continuation of Raynaldi, is that published at Lucca in 38 vols. folio, 1738-1787. A further continuation in 8 vols. folio, is at present in preparation by Father Théner, a priest of the Oratory at Rome.