GIOBER'TI, VINCENZO, a remarkable Italian writer and thinker of modern times, was b. in 1801, at Turin. He was educated for the church, obtained his degree of doc tor of theology in 1823, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1825. He was subse quently appointed professor of theology in the university of his native city, and on the accession of Charles Alhert, was selected as chaplain to the court, an office which he filled with distinction till 1833. At this period of rising political agitation, Gioberti was accused of promoting the liberal movement, was dismissed from court. and suffered an imprisonment of four months. Having obtained permission to retire into banishment, he went first to Paris, and shortly after to Brussels, where he spent eleven years as private tutor in an academy, pursuing in his leisure hours his private studies. A devout Catholic, Gioberti looked upon the papacy as the divinely appointed agency for the elevation of Italy among the nations. A confederation of states subject to papal arbitration, and having in the king of Piedmont a military protector, was the scheme devised by Gioberti for the unity and regeneration of his country. In short, in the 19th c. he advocated the Guelph policy of the middle ages. These views he elaborately developed in his work entitled, 11 Girds e _Morale degli Italiani (The Civil and Moral Supremacy of the Italians). Its publication in Paris, in 1842, during the author's exile, was hailed with the utmost enthusiasm by Italy, with the exception of a limited and far-sighted section of the country. The liberal and conciliative policy adopted by Rome on the accession of Pius IX., appeared the verification of Gioberti's predictions,
and increased the popularity of his name. On his return to Italy, he was received with universal ovations from all classes of the people, and was honored by being chosen by several towns as their representative in parliament. The king appointed him senator, he subsequently was elected president of the chamber of deputies, and finally prime minister; owing to the great divergence of opinion which divided his ministry, he held office only for a few weeks, and was forced to resign. His successor dispatched him to Paris on some unimportant mission, in order it was thought to remove him from Turin; and thus ended Gioberti's political career, as from that period he filled no official position, but devoted himself exclusively to literary pursuits. As a politician, Gioberti failed in far-sightedness; and with the course of events in Italy, his influence as a political guide inevitably declined; but the depth and range of thought and strength of conviction evinced in his various works, entitle him to the consideration and standing which, as a writer, he enjoys. Gioberti's remarkable gentleness in private inter course bore no trace of the energetic force with which his writings propound an opinion_ or denounce an opponent. He died at Paris of apoplexy in 1853. His chief writings are entitled, Introduzione alto studio .della (Paris, 1839); 11 Primato (Paris, 1842); 11 Gesuita modern, 8 vols. (Lausanne, 184); .11 L'innovamento cizile degli Italiani (Paris, 1851).