BARSOTTINI, GEREMIA. — Born in Versilia at Levigliani, in the municipality of Stazzema, on 8 May 1812. At the age of eighteen he entered the Congregation of the Piarists, and his teachers in his studies were Fr. Zucconi, Fr. Gatteschi, and Fr. Inghirami. He began teaching rhetoric at a very young age, first at the college of Urbino and then at the college of Modigliana; ordained a priest in 1836, he went on to teach higher humanities in Florence, succeeding Fr. Gatteschi in the rhetoric classes in ’48.
Although B. pursued the study of theology, Sacred Scripture, and patrology, he devoted his life to literary activity. Among his scholastic works there remain: Raccolta di prese e poesie, Collegamento di brani scelti dell'Iliade, and Lezioni di retorica. His sermons, moral and patriotic addresses, funeral orations, epitaphs, and poems are noteworthy; among the latter we may mention fifteen cantos to the Virgin, poetic compositions for priests and newly appointed pastors, and some sacred dramas: Debora e Giaele, Ester, L'ultimo giorno di Carusalemme. Toward the end of ’56 he left Florence, having been elected rector of the Piarist schools of Pietrasanta. He remained there for almost twenty years; on his return to Florence he died on 1 June 1884. For his tomb, Fr. Mauro Ricci, his pupil, composed the epitaph. Among his pupils was Carducci, who recalled him in a jest (Opere, I, pp. 308–10) and in a prose piece on Rossetti’s Veggente (Opere, XVIII, pp. 241–42). A person of very refined taste, B. represented worthily in Florence that classicist school which, among ecclesiastics, had representatives such as Msgr. Golfieri in Bologna and Abbot Missirini in Rome.