GUGLIELMOTTI, ALBERTO. — Dominican, in the world Francesco, born in Civitavecchia on 4 February 1812, died in Rome on 29 October 1893.
Having become a priest in 1834, he successfully devoted himself to teaching the physical and mathematical sciences, including astronomy, while 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 preferred studies.
The publication of The Dominican Missions in Tonkin (Rome 1844) provoked fierce criticism because of its poor Italian style; consequently G. decided, in addition to his scientific teaching and his experiments on the behavior of electric currents carried out during the installation of lightning conductors on the Torre delle Milizie, to renew completely his philological and historical education and knowledge, until he became a polished writer. In 1863 he visited the entire Levant, Jerusalem, Egypt, and Malta; in 1868 he was in Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Cologne, Belgium, Paris, and London, gathering extensive and valuable materials and making the most of acute and fundamental observations.
The fruit of so many studies was a body of work of unusual merit. First came an essay which, although favorably received, did not satisfy the author and was withdrawn: History of the Papal Navy from the Eighth to the Nineteenth Century (Rome 1856); the work was later partially republished, with additions and corrections, under the title History of the Papal Navy in the Middle Ages, from 728 to 1499 (Florence 1871). This was followed by Marcantonio Colonna at the Battle of Lepanto (ibid. 1872), an authentic masterpiece that went through no fewer than eleven editions; The War of the Pirates, etc. (Florence 1876); The History of the Fortifications on the Roman Coast (Rome 1880); The Permanent Squadron of the Roman Navy (Rome–Voghera 1882); and The Auxiliary Squadron in Candia and the Morea (ibid. 1883), concluding in 1884 with The Last Actions of the Roman Squadron of Egypt at Corfu (ibid.). All these works were merged, coordinated, and reprinted under the general title History of the Papal Navy (10 vols., Rome 1886–93), together with an accompanying Atlas of One Hundred Plates, printed by the Vatican Press at the behest of Leo XIII. Classical form, critical method, confidence and freedom of judgment, and sound, serene patriotism are the characteristic features of that admirable historical reconstruction, which deals not only with the history of the papal navy but also with Italian history, and especially with the art of naval warfare, which G. knew as a master. Alongside the History, complementing it reciprocally, appeared the Naval and Military Dictionary (Rome–Voghera 1889), which, Manfroni wrote, is unquestionably the most imposing work of Italian naval science. G. worked on the Dictionary until his final days, leaving unpublished a Supplement, together with the Vatican Tables rendered into Italian, Naval Archaeology, his Letters, and a Travel Journal.