GIOBERTI, jb-barlte, VINCENZO (1801-52). An Italian philosopher and statesman, born in Turin. Educated in the Church, he obtained his degree of doctor of theology in 1823, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1825. He was subsequently appointed professor of theology in the university of his native city, and on the accession of Charles Albert was selected as chap lain to the Court, an office which he filled till 1833. At this period of rising political agitation Gioberti was accused of promoting the liberal movement, was dismissed from Court, and suf fered an imprisonment of four months. As an other indignity his name was stricken from the list of doctors of theology on the ground that through his teachings he was a corrupter of youth. He then went 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. 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 regenera tion of his country. These' views he elaborately developed in his work entitled Del primato civile e morale degli Italiani (1843). The liberal and conciliatory policy adopted by Rome on the ac cession of Pius IX., a warm admirer of the Primate, appeared as the verification of Giober ti's predictions and increased the popularity of his name. On his return to Italy in 1848 he was ieceived with ovations from all classes of the people, and was chosen by several towns as their representative in Parliament. The King ap pointed him Senator; he subsequently was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies, and in December, 1848, became Prime Minister; but, owing chiefly to the failure of his attempt to bring about an agreement between the Pope and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he held office for only two months, and was forced to resign. Hia
successor dispatched him to Paris on some unim portant mission, and thus ended Gioberti's politi cal career.
From that period he devoted himself exclusive ly to literary pursuits in Paris, where he died October 26, 1852. As a politician Gioberti aimed' ever at the glory and aggrandizement of his country, but 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 con viction evinced in his various works entitle him to the consideration and standing which, as a writer, he enjoys. Gioberti's remarkable gentle ness in private intercourse bore no trace of the energetic force with which his writings propound an opinion or denotince an opponent. His chief writings, besides the Primate, are: La teorica del soprannaturale ( 1838 ) ; L'imtroduzione alto studio della filosofia (1840), which sums up his philo sophical system, best stated in the proposition, `The end creates the existence'; the Lettre sur les doctrines philosophiques et politiques de M. de Lamennais (1841) ; the treatises Del belle (1841) and Del buono (1843) ; the Prolegomeni al Pri mate (1845), an open attack upon the Jesuits, whom he had covertly assailed in the Primate; fl Gesuita modern (1847), a second attack upon the Jesuits, who had replied to his Prolegomeni; Del rinnovamento cittile d'Italia (1851), advo cating unity of the' Italian States, national inde pendence, and suppression of the temporal power of the Pope, and forecasting the• future greatness of Cavour. There appeared posthumously (1855 63) the Riforma cattolica della Chiesa, the Filo sofia della rivelazione, a large part of his corre spondence, and several other works. Consult: Berti, Di Vincenzo Gioberti, riformatore politico e ministro (Florence, 1881) ; • Spaventa, La file s* di Gioberti (Naples, 1863) ; Mauri, Scritti biografici (Florence, 1876) ; Zanichelli, "La giovinezza di Vincenzo Gioberti," in Studi politici, etc. (Bologna, 1893).