FRUSTA, LA. - An illustrated Roman periodical, founded and directed by the lawyer Carlo Marini (1843–1913). It appeared three times weekly on 20 Nov. 1870; the following year it became a daily, and enlarged its format in 1873. It was noteworthy for its impassioned articles against the “buzzurri” or “usurpers of Rome,” as well as for the great space given to the Roman vernacular in innumerable prose pieces and verses (anonymous, but by Marini) directed against the same. Its able editors included Filippo Tolli, Pietro Durantini, and Scipione Fraschetti. Its contributors included Card. Parocchi and several future cardinals: Massaja, Zigliara, Capecelatro, Schiaffino, Tripepi, Alimonda, Nocella, Jacobini.
Well produced for its time, it liked to anticipate its fellow publications in certain releases, as it did with the first encyclical of Leo XIII. It conducted memorable campaigns, obtaining, for example, the cancellation of the contract by which the Iberian Crown was selling S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli to the Protestants. Harassment by the tax authorities, sixty-four seizures, and convictions never discouraged Marini. The periodical nevertheless succumbed, while he and Giuseppe Amori were founding the twice-weekly La nuova frusta (6 June 1875).