Giambattista Roberti
{{Short description|Italian Jesuit, poet, and writer (1719–1786)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Reverend
| name = Giambattista Roberti
| image = File:Giambattista Roberti.JPG
| caption = Giambattista Roberti
| honorific-suffix = SJ
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1719|3|4}}
| birth_place = Bassano del Grappa, Republic of Venice
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1786|7|29|1719|3|4}}
| death_place = Bassano del Grappa, Republic of Venice
| resting_place =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = {{hlist|Poet|Intellectual|Writer}}
| children =
| parents = Roberto Roberti and Lucrezia Francesca Roberti (née Fracanzani)
| module = {{infobox writer |embed=yes
| language = Italian
| movement = Counter-Enlightenment
| notableworks = Del leggere i libri di metafisica e di divertimento
Lettera di un ufficiale portoghese ad un mercante inglese sopra il trattamento de’ negri
}}
| signature =
}}
Giambattista Roberti {{post-nominals|post-noms=SJ}} (4 March 1719 – 29 July 1786) was an Italian Jesuit, poet and writer.
Biography
Born in Bassano del Grappa, on 20 May 1736 Roberti entered the Society of Jesus and in 1743 he was ordained a priest.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}} He taught in the Jesuit colleges of Piacenza, Brescia, Parma and Bologna.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}} In Brescia he befriended Saverio Bettinelli and wrote his first works. He displayed a moderately progressive outlook in his didactic poems Le fragole (1752) and La commedia (1756), which praises Carlo Goldoni's theatrical reforms.{{sfn|Fido|2002}} A close friend of Giampietro Zanotti, Roberti was a member of the Accademia dei Gelati of Bologna.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}} In his essay Del leggere i libri di metafisica e di divertimento (1769), Roberti refuted the anonymous pamphlet De la prédication, attributed to Voltaire, and denounced the irreligiosity and licentiousness of contemporary literature.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}} The work was translated into German and published in Augsburg in 1788.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}}
After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773), Robert left Bologna and moved to his native in Bassano, where he met the famous astronomer Roger Joseph Boscovich.{{sfn|Galtarossa|2016}} In 1782 he published the Favole esopiane, a sharp criticism 18th century moral decadence. In his pamphlet Lettera di un ufficiale portoghese ad un mercante inglese sopra il trattamento de’ negri (1786) Roberti condemned slavery and advocated abolition of the international slave trade.{{sfn|Fido|2002}} He died in Bassano on 29 July 1786.
Works
- Raccolta di varie operette, VIII, Bologna, 1767–1795;
- Rime di Giacomo Vittorelli con una lettera dell’abate Giambatista Conte Roberti, Bassano, 1784;
- Opere [...] coll’aggiunta degli Opuscoli postumi dello stesso Autore, e colle notizie intorno alla sua Vita, XIV, Bassano, 1789;
- Saggio di lettere famigliari dell’abate Giambatista Conte Roberti. Opera Postuma, Bassano, 1797;
- Opere [...] seconda edizione veneta coll’aggiunta degli Opuscoli postumi dello stesso Autore, colle notizie intorno alla sua Vita, XV, Bassano, 1797;
- Opere, nuova edizione, XIX, Venice, 1830–1831;
- {{cite book|title=Lettera sopra l'uso della fisica nella poesia (1765)|editor=S. Baragetti|location=Milan|year=2014|publisher=LED Edizioni Universitarie|isbn=978-88-7916-652-2}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
{{sfn whitelist |CITEREFGaltarossa2016}}
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- {{cite encyclopedia|last=Fido|first=Franco|year=2002|title=Roberti, Giovanni Battista|encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-818332-7 |access-date=29 June 2023|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198183327.001.0001/acref-9780198183327-e-2739}}
- {{DBI|title=Roberti, Giambattista|first=Massimo|last=Galtarossa|volume=87|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giambattista-roberti_(Dizionario-Biografico)}}
- {{cite book
| last = Tuccillo
| first = Alessandro
| date = 2020
| title = Umanità contesa. L’apologetica di Giambatista Roberti contro il «filosofismo»
| url =
| location = Rome
| publisher = Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura
| page =
| isbn = 9788893594844
}}
{{Jesuits}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberti, Giambattista}}
Category:People from Bassano del Grappa
Category:18th-century Italian Jesuits