GUERRAZZI, gwer-rat'se, FRANCESCO Do DIENICO (1804-73). An Italian statesman and writer, born at Leghorn, and educated for the legal profession. In 1829 Guerrazzi was asso ciated with Mazzini and Bini in the establish ment. Of the Indicator Livornese, a short-lived liberal organ. A little later came his Elogio di Cosimo del Fante, and as a result of the liberal opinions enunciated in this treatise he was sent to Montepulciano. There he wrote La serpicina, a little essay delightful in style, intended to prove the paradox that man is in every way inferior to the brutes. He was imprisoned in 1831, and again in 1834, when he was taken to Portoferraio. At this place he employed his time in writing his Asscdio di Firenze, an historical novel, replete with patriotic fervor, which was published at Paris in 1836, and was a favorite with the young er generation during the events prior to 1848. In January of this last year he was again incar cerated for a few months. On the eve of the definite breach between the people and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1849, Guerrazzi was induced to accept office in the Ministry. On the flight of the Grand Duke he was proclaimed member of the Provisional Government, and subsequently Dictator. During this crisis of the State he pre served the strict autonomy of Tuscany until the return of the grand ducal rule, when he was im mediately seized and imprisoned on the ground of having neglected due measures of repression when the revolution first gathered strength dur ing his Ministry. His defense, entitled Apologia della vita politira di F. D. Gurrrazzi, published at Florence (1852). is a masterpiece. After an imprisonment of three years, he was condemned to the galleys, hut was subsequently permitted to select Corsica as the refuge of his perpetual banishment. Restored to liberty and action by
later events. Guerrazzi sat in the Parliament of Turin in 1862 and 1865. Guerrazzi's vocabulary is of the purest Italian, but his style is often most bitterly intemperate—Byronic in its impul siveness, not infrequently bombastic, and oc casionally even blasphemous. Some of the novels of Guerrazzi are: La battaglia di Bene vento, his first important production, and one of the most praiseworthy for its narrative style, not so much marred by defects here as elsewhere; Veronica Cybo; Isabella Orsini (1844) ; Marchese di Santa Prassede (1853) ; Beatrice Cenci (1854) ; La torre di monza (1857) ; Storia di un moscone (1838); Pasquale Paoli (1860), a work excellent in both tone and treatment, and dealing with the fall of Corsica. The later novels, like the Assedio di Roma (1864) , showed a remarkable decline in power on the part of Guerrazzi. Conspicuous among his other writ ings are the Scritti, published at Florence (1847), containing the mordant satire, I nuovi Tartufi; the Discorso at principe e at popolo (1847), in which he demanded a constitution for the country; the Asino (1857), with a sub ject like that of Serpicina ; and the Vita di Andrea Doria (1863). In 1844 he collected and published, at Florence, four Orazioni funebri d'illustri Italiani, and in 1848 he printed his Mernonie. Consult: The editions of Guerrazzi's Lettere, by Carducci (Leghorn, 1880-83), and by Martini (Turin, 1891) ; Bosio, Opere, Vita di Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (Milan, 1877) ; Vismara, Bibliografia di Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (Milan, 1880) ; Fenini, Francesco Do menico Guerrazzi, studi critici (Milan, 1873).