FONTANINI, GIUSTO. - Man of letters, born at S. Daniele del Friuli in 1666, died at Rome on 17 Apr. 1736. In 1697 Clement XI granted him the chair of eloquence at Rome. Benedetto XIII made him archbishop of Ancira. In the dispute between the Holy See and the Este family over
Comacchio (1708-14), he defended the Pope’s claims, casting doubt upon the antiquity and nobility of the house of Este and attacking L. A. Muratori in a polemic of excessive violence. He subsequently upheld the rights of the Church over the duchy of Parma and Piacenza.
A student of antiquities, he wrote De antiquitatibus Hortae coloniae Etruscorum (1708). But his principal work was an annotated bibliography of Italian literature: Dell'eloquenza italiana, of which he published an outline in 1706 and the complete edition in 1726. The gaps and numerous errors of the work were corrected by Apostolo Zeno in the notes to the new edition, which, under the title Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana, was published in 1753.