CESARI, ANTONIO. — Writer, born in Verona in 1760. He was a priest of the local Congregation of the Oratory. He devoted himself intensely to sacred studies, but even more so to literary ones.
He published various translations: from Greek, two elegies by Callimachus and the *Apologeticus* of St. Gregory Nazianzen; from Latin, the *Odes* and some *Satires* of Horace, the comedies of Terence, the first book of *De virginibus* by St. Ambrose, and collaborated, together with Abbot Giuseppe Furlanetto, on the *Appendix ad totius latinitatis Lexicon* of Egidio Forcellini (Padua 1816). His translation of the *Institution of Christ* (Verona 1785) is truly to be ranked among the texts of the Italian language (F. Flora). In the teaching of Italian and Latin he spent thirty years until 1807, finally devoting much of his efforts to the new edition of the *Vocabolario della Crusca* with the Veronese additions. In seeking the canon of the perfect writer, he formulated the principles for a revival of beautiful writing: his doctrine of "purism" is found in the *Dissertation on the Present State of the Italian Language* and in the dialogue *Le Grazie*; and he affirmed that the language of the fourteenth century "is sufficient to express all things elegantly." Witnesses to his long love for the ancient language are his editions of the *Lives of the Holy Fathers*, the *Life of the Blessed Colombini*, the *Fioretti*, and his acute analysis of Dante’s language in the *Bellezze della Commedia di Dante*. In his original writings (Novelle, *Rime piacevoli*, *Rime gravi*), C. broadly confirmed his theory on the absolute value of the golden age of the fourteenth century. His most notable works of a religious nature—*Historical-Moral Lessons*, *Life of Jesus Christ and His Religion*, *Deeds of the Apostles*, *Flower of Ecclesiastical History*—give us of C. and his literary productivity that idea which Giordani defined in the famous epitaph: "With his writings and with his life he gloriously upheld the faith of Christ and the language of Italy."
His humanistic activity did not prevent C. from attending to the duties of religious life; indeed, he may be considered the restorer of the Oratory of Verona after the Napoleonic interruption. He died in Ravenna in 1828, and a tomb was erected for him in the church of St. Romuald in Classe (the inscription was composed by Abbot Celestino Cavedoni); when the church was closed to worship, the tomb was later transferred to the metropolitan church of the same city.