Tartarotti, Girolamo

TARTAROTTI, GIROLAMO. - Scholar, b. at Rovereto on 2 Jan. 1706, d. there on 16 May 1761. He was a friend of Scipione Maffei, of Apostolo Zeno and of Muratori. At Rovereto he founded, in 1730, the Accademia dei Dodonei.

He was secretary at Rome, in the household of Card. Passionei, then secretary to Marco Foscarini (the future doge) at Venice, where he remained from 1741 to 1743, when he returned to his Rovereto, where he devoted himself to illustrating the history of his homeland. His works De origine Ecclesiae Tridentinae (1743); Memorie storiche intorno alla vita e alla morte dei ss. Sinisio, Martirio e Alessandro (1745) and De episcopatu Sabionensi s. Cassiani mart. deque Ingenuini eiusdem urbis episcopi actis kindled new controversies that became violent with the Memorie antiche di Rovereto (Venice 1754), where he denied the sanctity and the martyrdom of the bl. Adelpreto, bishop of Trent. He had as a fierce adversary Fr. Benedetto Bonelli, who with his writings never gave him respite. T. in 1749 published at Rovereto Del Congresso notturno delle Lammie: entering into controversy with Gianrinaldo Carli, the celebrated criminalist Melchiori, Scipione Maffei and Fr. Bonelli. T. also occupied himself with literature. While on 16 May 1761, in the Piazza del Duomo of Trent, the executioner was throwing onto the pyre, sheet by sheet, his book Lettera seconda d'un giornalista d'Italia, he died. His death was followed by the interdict launched upon the archpriestal church of Rovereto, on account of a bust that the city wished to erect to its distinguished citizen.

Antonio Rossaro