GIUSTO da URBINO (CURTOPASSI). - Capuchin missionary and Ethiopianist, born at Matraia (Lucca) on 30 Aug. 1814, died at Khartoum on 21 Sept. 1856. Having set out for East Africa in 1846, he was expelled from Ethiopia in 1855, took refuge in Egypt, and died as a confessor of the faith and martyr of obedience in the attempt to return to his mission.
Recent archival research has rehabilitated his religious and cultural work, overturning earlier unfavourable judgments.
He wrote a catechism, a ritual for the Ethiopian Church, and translated F. Bourgade’s *Les soirées de Carthage* (our no. 165 of the Ethiopian codices in the Vatican Library). In 1849 he composed an Ethiopic-Latin dictionary (Rome, Library of the Royal 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. 134; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, mss. 216 and 217 of the D’Abbadie Ethiopian manuscript collection).
These works of great scholarly value have been partly edited by S. Grébaud (*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 have often been widely used by orientalists and Ethiopianists.
Finally, the attribution to Fr G. of the double treatise *Zara’ya’qob* (Examination of revealed religion) is unfounded. In an autograph of 20 Sept. 1852, hitherto unnoticed, Fr G. told D’Abbadie: “You have found some very curious books… I too have found a strange book in Abyssinia. It is a kind of historical-biographical novel, written by a deist philosopher of the Portuguese period… It seems to me interesting for the history of the time and for the novelty of the genre in Abyssinia.” Having meanwhile had the chance to buy it, on 10 Feb. 1853 he wrote again: “I have at last found that strange book I mentioned to you… I have begun a copy (for you).” And in a note added at the end of the copy sent to D’Abbadie (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, no. 234 of the D’Abbadie Ethiopian manuscripts), he affirmed for the third time: “I found this book by chance: in truth I did not know it… I had seen another copy years ago (1851).” Against these testimonies, corroborated by other documents and by Ethiopian tradition, it is unjust to ascribe to a meritorious missionary an indefensible work of apostasy.