APPENDINI, FRANCESCO. - Born at Poirino in Piedmont on 6 Nov. 1769. A Piarist on 15 Apr. 1787. Sent at a very young age to Ragusa, he made that city his second homeland, which he ennobled with his virtues and his works, together with his brother Urbano, also a Piarist. One of the A.'s most notable merits was having promoted Slavic erudition and literature, which until his time had been greatly neglected. In 1802 he published the Notizie istorico-critiche sulle antichità storia e letteratura de' Ragusei, a valuable work which, apart from certain flaws deriving from the era in which it was written, is and will remain one of the few sources for the literary history of that city. He also compiled an Illyrian grammar, and promoted the translation into Italian and the reprinting of our classics. He was in correspondence with distinguished cultivators of Illyrian literature, such as Kopitar, Schaffarik, and Muller.
When the republic fell into the hands of the French in 1808, he knew how to win the friendship of General Marmont, the governor, and to obtain benefits for his Order. He wrote many biographies of illustrious Ragusans, the Memorie concerning certain illustrious men of Cattaro (Ragusa 1811), the critical examination of the question concerning the homeland of St. Jerome (Zara 1833), and an interesting unpublished study on Petrarch.
After the death of his brother Urbano, director of studies in Dalmatia, with residence in Zara, he went on to occupy that post by order of the Austrian government, but after a short time he died on 30 Jan. 1837.
Bibliography3 works
Leodegario Picanyol