TARTAROTTI, GIROLAMO. – Scholar, born in Rovereto on 2 January 1706, died there on 16 May 1761. He was a friend of Scipione Maffei, Apostolo Zeno, and Muratori. In Rovereto, in 1730, he founded the Accademia dei Dodonei.
He served as secretary in Rome to Cardinal Passionei, then as secretary to Marco Foscarini (the future doge) in Venice, where he remained from 1741 to 1743, when he returned to his Rovereto and 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 provoked new controversies, which became violent with the Memorie antiche di Rovereto (Venice 1754), in which he denied the sanctity and martyrdom of Blessed Adelpreto, bishop of Trent. He had a fierce adversary in Father Benedetto Bonelli, who never gave him respite in his writings. In 1749 T. published Del Congresso notturno delle Lammie in Rovereto, entering into controversy with Gianrinaldo Carli, the celebrated criminal lawyer Melchiori, Scipione Maffei, and Father Bonelli. T. also occupied himself with literature. While on 16 May 1761, in the Piazza del Duomo of Trento, the executioner was throwing his book Lettera seconda d'un giornalista d'Italia into the flames, sheet by sheet, he died. His death was followed by the interdict imposed on the archpriestly church of Rovereto, because of a bust that the city wished to erect to its illustrious citizen.