RAGGIO, GIAMBATTISTA FRANCESCO. - Abbot and scholar, b. at Chiavari on 15 July 1795, d. at Genoa on 6 Feb. 1860.
A professor of Latin and Greek letters in the Piarist schools of Cárcare (Savona) and then of rhetoric in the episcopal Seminary of Noli, and author of a well-regarded translation of the works of Sallust, he was called in 1830 to be professor of rhetoric in Genoa, where in 1834 he assumed the direction of the Berio civic Library and later the dignity of collegiate doctor and of councillor of the class (faculty) of letters of the University. A contributor to numerous literary newspapers and periodicals of Liguria and Piedmont, in the columns of the Rivista ligure he published a close-knit critique of G. B. Niccolini's Arnaldo da Brescia, whose anticlerical partisanship he brought to light: the vigorous review had wide resonance and procured for R. the hostility of liberal circles, which in 1849 induced the municipal authorities to relieve him of the direction of the Library. For the same reason it was not possible to carry out the vote of the municipal council of Noli, which in 1890 had decreed that a plaque be dedicated to R. commemorating his activity as educator and scholar. Besides the aforementioned translation into the vernacular of Sallust (Genoa 1840 and 1847, two editions), it is recalled that he edited the publication of the Leggi del Consolato di Genova del MCXLIII, in Historiae Patriae monumenta, Leges Municipales, I, Turin 1838, coll. 234-94, and gave to the press several poetical works.
A tenacious assertor of the rights of the Church and of the Roman pontificate, he constantly wore the ecclesiastical habit although he had received only the minor orders.
Bibliography4 works
Renzo U. Montini