BELTRAME, GIOVANNI. - Missionary, explorer, educator, b. 11 Nov. 1824 at Valeggio sul Mincio and d. 8 Apr. 1906 at Verona. A pupil of the Mazza Institute in Verona, he was accepted into what was then called the “Mission of Central Africa” (v. KHARTOUM) by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic Dr. Knoblecher, who assigned to the disciples of Mazza a region on the Blue Nile, and later the Sennar peninsula along the Jál and Sobat rivers. Beltrame, who had been ordained priest in 1849, set out with his companion Don Antonio Castegnaro in Oct. 1853, arriving at Khartoum on 29 Dec., where he began his missionary apprenticeship with a school for Black boys. A year later, ascending the Blue Nile beyond the Egyptian frontier, he ventured into the land of the Shilluk to study the possibilities of a missionary foundation, in agreement with his provincial. Crossing the province of Sennar, he reached Beni Shengul on 7 Feb. 1854, studying the entire region; the fruit of this exploration was his book *Il Sennar e lo Sciengelleh*, published later in Verona in 1879. In ’56 he returned to Italy, and in early ’57 he was in Vienna at the invitation of Archbishop Mescuta, president of the Viennese Committee for Central Africa, who entrusted him with a new exploration. In Sept. 1857 Beltrame set out again, at the head of a new band of missionaries from Mazza, including Comboni (v.), and ascending the White Nile reached the station of Santa Croce (14 Feb. 1858). His principal task was to study the Dinka language, which he accomplished amid no small difficulties and continual fevers. But that entire zone proved barren: hence, given also the death of several young confrères and of the Pro-Vicar himself, and the orders of the new Pro-Vicar Kirchner, the decision was made to return and await definitive orders from Rome at Shellal near Assuan (Nubia), which indeed arrived with the transfer of the mission to the Franciscans of Styria.
Returning to his homeland in 1862, Beltrame remained always at his institute in Verona, which he then directed from 1899 until his death. He displayed lively pastoral, educational, and cultural activity, always participating in every manifestation of a geographical-colonial nature in Italy. Other works of his on missionary-colonial topics are *Fiume Bianco e i Denka* (1881) and *In Nubia presso File, Siene ed Elefantina* (1893).