GIUSTI, jOoete, Giuseppe, Tuscan satirical poet: b. Monsummano, near Pescia, 13 May 1809; d. Florence, 31 March 1850. Son of well to-do and intellectual parents, his early studies were made in Florence and Lucca. In 1826 he was sent greatly against his will to study law at the University of Pisa, but so little did he care for this career that it was only in 1834 that he got his degree and was admitted to the practice of his profession. Better known to the grand ducal police than to his teachers, already noted in his student days for his liberal associations and for his satirical verses against the Tuscan authorities, it was not long before Giusti abandoned law fo letters. In 1833 he satirized Francis IV, the ferocious Duke of Modena, in 'La Guigliottina a vapore> (The Steam Guil lotine) with such success that the young author established himself quickly as the Beranger of Italy. His political and social satires, under the name of
(Pleasantries) and (Versi,' circulating at first surreptitiously in manuscript form, attached the, abuses of the day, the petty tyrants and the foreign oppres sors of the peninsula. On the death of Francis I of Austria, Giusti wrote in 1835 his famous
Irmd a bitter invective against the ins placable persecutor of Italian liberals. In the following year appeared (Lo Stivale
Boot'), a pathetic, ouaint and pointed allegory, a plea for a united Italy. The poet rose to higher lyric pinnacles in the satirical ode,
(1838), when he bitterly as sailed the coronation of Ferdinand I of Austria at Milan. 'La Vestizione)
Inaugura tion,' 1839). `II Ballo> and 'La Scritta> (1841) lay bare the abjectness of the old nobility and the upstart crassness of the new aristocracy. (II Brindisi di Girella> (1840), a brilliant satire on political chameleons, addressed to Talley rand; 'La Terra dei Morti,> a reply to Lamartine's strictures on Italy;
Re Travicello>
Log') ; and other poems ap
in rapid succession. On account of his
which had always been delicate, the poet interrupted his work in 1844 to travel to Rome and to Naples, then to Leghorn and finally to Pescia, where in 1845 he wrote
splendid patriotic poem, 'Sant' Ambrogio,' and his powerful 'Delenda Cartago,' stirring in its fervid invective against the foreign oppressors. The latter years of Giusti's life were spent in the activities of the revolt of 184& In 1847 already he was a major in the Guardia Civica of Pescia; in 1848 and again in 1849 he was elected a deputy to the Tuscan legislature, al though his health soon became too delicate to permit his continuance in politics. As a politi cal satirist, Giusti was a bitter opponent of foreign rule and interference in Italy. So greatly was his verse feared by •the authorities, that no edition dared be printed before 1844. Giusti wrote in his racy Tuscan idiom, employ ing the popular dialect of his province with singular felicity, with a mastery of inyectUre and a skill for concise characterization inimit ably his own. His field at times is narrow, the abuses in local conditions and the evils of his day. He gave, however, to political satire a freshness of form, a vivacity of metre and a variety in rhythms that stamped him at once in Italy as the creator of a new type of poetry. Lacking the universality, the breadth of Béranger, to whom he has often been com pared, he surpasses his French counterpart in form, in technical equipment and above all in poetic inspiration. Although his reputation has suffered somewhat through changes wrought by time and varying taste, Giusti's name will survive as that of an original poet who sought and attained noble aims in civic education.° See GINGILLINO and consult Carducci, G., 'Poesie di Giuseppe Giusti' (Florence 1859); Puccianti, G., 'Poesie di Giuseppe Giusti' (Florence 1913); Martini, Ferd.,
di Giuseppe Giusti' (Florence 1904) ; Horner, Susan, 'The Tuscan Poet, Giuseppe Giusti, and his Times' (London 1864); Howell, W. D.,
Italian Poets> (New York 1887).