GUGLIELMOTTI, ALBERTO. - Dominican, in the world Francesco, b. at Civitavecchia on 4 Feb. 1812, d. at Rome on 29 Oct. 1893.
Having become a priest in 1834, he devoted himself successfully to the teaching of the physical and mathematical sciences, including astronomy, at the same time holding important conventual offices, until he became theologian of the Casanatense. Only in 1862 was he finally able to devote himself entirely to his beloved studies.
The publication of Le missioni domenicane nel Tonchino (Rome 1844) drew sharp criticism for its poor Italian dress; therefore G. decided, in addition to his scientific teaching and his experiments on the behavior of electric currents carried out during the installation of lightning rods on the Torre delle Milizie, to renew from the ground up his education and his philological and historical knowledge until he became a polished writer. In 1863 he visited the whole Levant, Jerusalem, Egypt and Malta; in 1868 he was in Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Cologne, in Belgium, in Paris and in London, gathering vast and precious materials and profiting from acute and fundamental observations.
The fruit of so much study was a body of work of uncommon value. There came first an essay which, although favorably received, did not satisfy the author and was withdrawn: Storia della marina militare pontificia dal sec. VIII al XIX (Rome 1856); the work was later partially republished with additions and emendations under the title Storia della marina pontificia nel medioevo, dal 728 al 1499 (Florence 1871). There followed il Marcantonio Colonna alla battaglia di Lepanto (ibid. 1872), a genuine masterpiece that went through no fewer than eleven editions, La guerra dei pirati etc. (Florence 1876), the Storia delle fortificazioni nella spiaggia romana (Rome 1880), La squadra permanente della marina romana (Rome-Voghera 1882), La squadra ausiliaria a Candia ed alla Morea (ibid. 1883), closing in 1884 with Gli ultimi fatti della squadra romana dell'Egitto a Corfù (ibid.). All these works were merged, coordinated and reprinted under the general title Storia della Marina pontificia (10 vols., Rome 1886-93) together with an accompanying Atlante delle cento tavole, with the types of the Vatican Printing House and at the wish of Leo XIII. Classical form, critical method, sureness and freedom of judgment, sound and serene patriotism, constitute the typical characteristics of that admirable historical reconstruction, in which is treated not only the history of the pontifical navy, but also that of the Italian navy, and especially of naval military art, which G. knew as a master. Together with the Storia, as a mutual complement, came the Vocabolario marino e militare (Rome-Voghera 1889), which, wrote Manfroni, is undoubtedly the most powerful work of Italian naval science. G. worked on the Vocabolario until his last days, leaving unpublished a Supplement and together with it the Tavole attiche volgarizzate, the Archeologia navale, the Epistolario and a Giornale di viaggio.
Bibliography6 works
Innocenzo Taurisano