BOSELLI, LUIGI ANTONIO

Luigi Antonio BOSELLI. — Priest, educator, born in Genoa in 1798, died there in 1886. He came into contact with and was influenced by the leading exponents of Ligurian Jansenism, Abbots Degola and Desclazionde, and openly professed ideas on the necessity of a profound reform of the Church, being opposed to the temporal power of the Popes and to the definition of papal infallibility. He was also a fervent patriot. But the best part of his life was spent in the care of the deaf-mute; at first as a disciple of Fr. O. Assarotti (v.), then as his collaborator, and finally from 1829 as his successor in the direction of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Genoa, which he developed significantly, encouraged by Cardinals Lambruschini and Tadini and praised by Gregory XVI himself (letter of 9 May 1835).

Among his writings to be remembered are: *Sui sordomuti, sulla loro istruzione ed il loro numero* (Genoa 1834); *Osservazioni sull'insegnamento della grammatica del p. Assarotti* (in *Educatore primario*, 3 [1847], pp. 32 ff., 481 ff., 609 ff.); *Considerazioni religiose e civili intorno all'educazione dei sordomuti* (Naples 1856); *Appello alla nazione e ai poteri dello Stato a favore dei sordomuti* (Genoa 1863).

BIBL.: R. Drago, *Cenni storici sul r. Istituto dei sordomuti in Genova*, Genoa 1867, passim; S. Monaci, *Storia del r. Istituto nazionale dei sordomuti in Genova*, 2nd ed., ibid. 1901, pp. 89-200; A. Gambaro, *F. A. Aporti, e gli asili del Risorgimento*, II, Turin 1937, p. 615 ff. Celestino Testore