GRANELLI, GIOVANNI

GRANELLI, GIOVANNI. — Jesuit, man of letters, and orator, born in Genoa on 15 April 1703, died in Modena on 3 March 1770. Not yet a priest, he taught belles-lettres with extraordinary success at the College of Padua; he then went to Bologna, to the College of S. Luigi, to study theology, while at the same time assisting the boarders, for whom he composed the tragedies Sedecia, Manasse, and Dione, performed in the College theatre from 1731 to 1733 and repeated at Parma in 1736. G. here proves himself a skilful author in the portrayal of characters, the exquisite construction of the verse, and the polish of his style. From 1737 he devoted himself to preaching, especially restoring the genre of the “sacred lectures,” on scriptural subjects; in 1761 he was summoned to Vienna by Maria Teresa as court preacher, since she wished to revive the interrupted Italian preaching. He was rector of the College of Modena, librarian, and theologian to Duke Francesco III.
In addition to the three tragedies mentioned, he composed a fourth, Seila (1761), but it was weak and laboured; his oratorical works remained more celebrated: Lezioni morali, istoriche, critiche e cronologiche, which deal with the history of the Old Testament up to the Babylonian captivity (16 vols., Parma-Modena 1765-69); Prediche quaresimali e panegirici (2 vols., Modena 1771), of which many editions appeared within a short time. The Poesie scelte appeared posthumously (there 1772).