Tiraboschi, Girolamo

TIRABOSCHI, GIROLAMO. - Historian, b. at Bergamo on 18 Dec. 1731, d. at Modena on 3 June 1794. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1746, he taught eloquence at Milan in the College of Brera and from 1770 was prefect of the Estense Library at Modena.

Here he published from 1772 to 1782 the Storia della letteratura italiana, of which the second definitive edition appeared in sixteen volumes, with additions and corrections, again at Modena from 1787 to 1793; it is a vast collection of information, sifted by a very alert critical mind, according to the method and example of Muratori, and arranged in a solid construction, which seeks to encompass the entire development of Italian culture, from the Etruscan age down to the whole of the 17th century. T.'s erudition, despised by many in the age of Romanticism, was later celebrated by pure philologists for its seriousness, and is still useful to scholars.

This value was also manifested in the Biblioteca modenese (6 vols., Modena 1781-86), with information on writers, artists and music masters native to the Estense provinces; in the Storia dell'angusta badia di S. Silvestro di Nonantola, provided with a diplomatic codex (2 vols., ibid. 1784-85); in the Memorie storiche modenesi (5 vols., ibid. 1793-95), where the vicissitudes of the Estense provinces from the Roman age down to the 15th century are set forth, the series of the bishops of Modena and of Reggio are reconstructed, information is given on the monasteries and the principal families of the region, and numerous documents are published, for the most part unpublished, from 767 to 1469; in the Dizionario topografico-storico degli Stati Estensi (posthumous, 2 vols., Modena 1824-25); and in other minor works.

Giovanni Tabacco