BRESCIANI (BORSA), ANTONIO. — Jesuit, writer, born at Ala in Trentino on 24 July 1798, died in Rome on 14 March 1862. Of noble family, he studied with the abbot Monterossi. Ordained a priest, he taught rhetoric at the Verona lycée, and, impelled by a deep-rooted vocation, wished to join the Society, of which he soon became an eminent figure, proving himself a good educator and educational theorist. He was above all a man of letters, a follower of the purists under the guidance of Cesari. His extensive and notable work is distinguished by a judicious wealth of vocabulary, well-constructed periods, and original gifts of exposition and description, although somewhat weighed down by a certain archaic prolixity. At first he published chiefly translations, biographical, critical, descriptive, and moral sketches. With his polished chapters on Romanticismo he took his place among the classicists; he showed himself a good philologist in the Saggio di alcune voci toscane, and a good archaeologist and ethnographer in outlining I costumi dell'isola di Sardegna.
Known among men of letters and legitimists, he entered, at the wish of Pius IX, the editorial staff of La Civiltà Cattolica, charged with upholding traditional principles and institutions through the mirage of episodes woven upon the fabric of the century’s events. He succeeded by placing himself resolutely at the head of the reactionary writers, arousing wide attention with a series of stories that surprised by their boldness and by their ease in tackling subjects that were at times delicate, and that constitute a much-neglected historical source of considerable symptomatic significance. Manzoni called him the foremost pen in Italy. Pius IX personally corrected on the proofs passages concerning his pontificate.
He had embarked upon the new genre as early as 1846, on the occasion of the famous amnesty, with Il trionfo della clemenza; he continued, among other works, with Ubaldo ed Irene, set against the backdrop of the revolution and the Empire; with Don Giovanni ossia il Benefattore occulto, which also contains interesting material on the death of Ciro Menotti and the Barnabite Ugo Bassi; and with the trilogy comprising l'Ebreo di Verona, the best of them all, La Repubblica Romana, and il Lionello, centered on the conflicts of 1846–49. The Austro-Franco-Sardinian conflict of 1859 inspired Giulio o il Cacciatore delle Alpi, and in 1860 the gathering and magnanimous fall of volunteers from every country in defense of the rights of the Holy See inspired Olderico ovvero il Zuovo pontificio. Death overtook him as he was beginning Assedio di Ancona.
He also left a rich and polished correspondence. Among the compositions of varied character should be listed: Edmondo o dei costumi del popolo Romano, a valuable folkloric repertory; La Contessa Matilde di Canossa e Iolanda di Groninga, an inspired glorification of Gregory VII; La Casa di ghiaccio, containing attractive glimpses of the missions in the northern lands; Lorenzo o il Cascritto, a delicate and gentle idyll of love and faith. He also produced an acute examination of L'Armeria antica del Re Carlo Alberto, the funeral eulogy of Archduchess Maria Beatrice di Savoia-Este, and a first account of the virtues of the venerable queen Maria Cristina di Savoia-Borbone.