Granelli, Giovanni

GRANELLI, GIOVANNI. - Jesuit, man of letters and orator, b. in Genoa on 15 April 1703, d. in Modena on 3 March 1770. While not yet a priest, he taught belles-lettres with extraordinary success at the College of Padua; he then moved to Bologna, to the College of St. Louis, for the study of theology, at the same time assisting the boarders, for whom he composed the tragedies Sedecia, Manasse, Dione, performed in the College theater from 1731 to 1733 and repeated at Parma in 1736. In them G. proves himself a deft author in the depiction of characters, in the exquisite workmanship of the verse and in the polish of the style. From 1737 he devoted himself to preaching, especially restoring the genre of the «sacred lessons», on scriptural subjects; in 1761 he was summoned to Vienna, as court preacher, by Maria Theresa, who wished to resume there the interrupted Italian preaching. He was rector of the College of Modena, librarian and theologian to Duke Francis III.

Besides the three tragedies mentioned, he composed a fourth, Seila (1761), but it is feeble and labored; more celebrated remained the oratorical works: Lezioni morali, istoriche, critiche e cronologiche, which treat the history of the Old Testament down to the Babylonian captivity (16 vols., Parma-Modena 1765-69); Prediche quaresimali e panegirici (2 vols., Modena 1771), of which many editions appeared in a short time. The Poesie scelte appeared posthumously (ibid. 1772).