BASSI, bas'sE, Ugo, Barnabite monk, and distinguished Italian patriot: b. 1804 at Cento, in the Roman states, of an Italian father and Greek mother. He was much distinguished among the brethren for his extraordinary learn ing and talents. The liberality of his political opinions, however, rendered him obnoxious to the papal court, and he was sent into exile in Sicily, from which he returned on the accession of Pius IX in 1846. On the breaking out of the Lombard revolution in 1848 he greatly dis tinguished himself by his valor in battle and his untiring services in the hospitals. . On the capitulation of Treviso he went to Venice, where he fought in the ranks against _her Austrian besiegers. Thence he went to Rome and joined Garibaldi's legion as chaplain. On the fall of Rome he was one of those who fol lowed Garibaldi when he made a last attempt to fight his way to Venice, which still held out against the Austrians. The little band was,
however, dispersed and cut up by Austrian troops, and Garibaldi himself escaped with great difficulty. /3assi was taken prisoner, carried to Bologna and condemned to death 18 Aug. 1849. He was the author of a work on (The Church After the Image of Christ,' and an unfinished poem called (Constantine, or the Triumph of the Cross.' His talents were universal. He was an accomplished musician and composer, wrote his own language in remarkable perfec tion, and was a perfect master of Greek, Latin, English and French. He was equally remark able for his personal beauty and his eloquence as an improvisatore, while his memory was so prodigious that he is said to have been capable of reciting the whole of Dante's