GIUSTO da URBINO (CURTOPASSI). — Capuchin missionary and Ethiopianist, born at Matraia (Lucca) on 30 August 1814, died at Hartom on 21 September 1856. He departed for East Africa (1846); subsequently expelled from Ethiopia in 1855, he took refuge in Egypt and died as a confessor of the faith and martyr of obedience, while attempting to return to his mission.
Recent archival research has restored the value of his religious and cultural work, in contrast to earlier unfavorable judgments.
He wrote a catechism and a ritual of the Ethiopian Church, and translated Les soirées de Carthage by F. Bourgade (ms. no. 165 of the Ethiopian codices of the Vatican Library). He composed (1849) an Ethiopic-Latin dictionary (Rome, Library of the R. Italian Geographical Society), an Ethiopic grammar (1850–54), with literary compositions, and at the same time an Ethiopic-French-Amharic dictionary (Rome, National Library, Oriental ms. no. 134; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, mss. nos. 216 and 217 of the collection of D'Abbadie’s Ethiopian manuscripts).
These works of great scientific value were partially published by S. Grébaut (Aethiops, 4 [1931], pp. 36–43, 50–58; Aethiopica, 2 [1934], pp. 1–9, 33–36; 3 [1935], pp. 41–44, 118–24, 175–81), and were often extensively used by Orientalists and Ethiopianists.
Finally, the attribution to Fr. G. of the two deist treatises Hatatā Zar'a Jā'qob (“Examination of Zar'a Jā'qob”) and Hatatā Walda Heywat, in which all revealed religion is denied, proves unfounded. In an autograph dated 20 September 1852, hitherto unreported, Fr. G. stated to D'Abbadie: “You have found some very curious books... I too found a strange book in Abyssinia. It is a kind of novel or biographical history, written by a deist philosopher of the time of the Portuguese... It seems interesting to me both for the history of the period and for the novelty of the genre in Abyssinia.” Having meanwhile had the opportunity to purchase it, six months later, on 10 February 1853, he wrote again: “I have finally found that strange book of which I told you... I have begun making a copy of it (for you).” And in a note added at the end of the aforementioned copy sent to D'Abbadie (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, no. 234 of the Ethiopian manuscripts in the D'Abbadie collection), he reaffirmed for the third time: “I found this book by chance: in truth, I did not know it... I had seen another copy two years ago (1851).” In the face of this testimony, corroborated by other documents and by the unanimous Ethiopian tradition, it is unjust to attribute to a meritorious missionary an utterly disqualifying work of apostasy.
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