LA FRUSTA. – Illustrated Roman periodical, founded and directed by the lawyer Carlo Marini (1843–1913). It first appeared on 20 November 1870; the following year it became a daily, and in 1873 it enlarged its format. Notable for its heated articles against the “buzzurri” or “usurpers of Rome,” as well as for the ample space it devoted to Romanesque dialect in endless prose and verse (anonymous but by Marini himself) against the same targets. Among his valuable collaborators were Filippo Tolli, Pietro Durantini, and Scipione Fraschetti. The journal also featured contributions from Cardinal Parocchi and various future cardinals: Massaja, Zigliara, Capecelatro, Schiaffino, Tripepi, Alimonda, Nocella, and Jacobini.
Well-produced for its time, it often anticipated fellow publications in certain scoops, such as its coverage of Leo XIII’s first encyclical. It conducted memorable campaigns, for example securing the annulment of the contract by which the Spanish Crown sought to sell San Giacomo degli Spagnoli to Protestants. Sixty-four seizures, fines, and convictions never deterred Marini. Nonetheless, the periodical collapsed even as he and Giuseppe Amori launched the biweekly *La nuova frusta* (6 June 1875).