Background
Eleuterio Felice Foresti was born in Conselice, province of Ferrara, Papal States, in 1793.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Crestomazia-Italiana-Collection-Selected-Italian/dp/0559601972?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0559601972
university professor United States consul
Eleuterio Felice Foresti was born in Conselice, province of Ferrara, Papal States, in 1793.
Little is known of his early years other than that he was a precocious pupil in the local schools. He studied at the University of Bologna, where in 1809 he obtained the degree of dottore in legge.
Returning to his native town, he received successively the appointments of provisory assistant judge in the court of Ferrara, assistant professor of eloquence and belles-lettres in the lyceum, and justice of the peace, an office which necessitated his removal to Polesine.
Later he was made praetor, under the Emperor’s warrant, in Crespino, in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. About this time he became actively interested in Carbonarism. He was immediately admitted not only to all the grades of the society, but was also made a Guelph cavalier.
Shortly afterwards a treacherous colleague revealed to the accredited agents of Austria and of Pope Pius VII the activities of this mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara, and on January 7, 1819, Foresti and others who had been named as adherents of Carbonarism were arrested and hurried off to the Piombi, a famous prison in Venice.
After a trial lasting more than a year, the final decision arrived at Venice in November 1821. Believing his fate sealed, Foresti made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide by plunging a penknife into his breast and swallowing fragments of a broken bottle.
After two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by ingenious moral torture, he was condemned to death, but the sentence was later commuted to twenty years’ imprisonment in the dungeons of Spielberg, Moravia, Austria.
In 1835 Ferdinand signalized his accession to the throne by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning them to exile in America. Foresti and his fellow prisoners arrived in New York on October 20, 1836. Three years later, in 1839, he was appointed professor of Italian language and literature in Columbia College.
In 1841, he became an American citizen, and in the following year he was appointed professor of Italian language and literature at New York University (then the University of the City of New York), holding this post as well as that of Columbia until the spring of 1856.
In connection with his teaching of Italian, he edited Ollendorff’s New Method of Learning to Read, Write, and Speak the Italian Language (1846).
He also published, in 1846, Crestomazia Italiana, containing prose selections from the best Italian writers. Unlike many of his fellow exiles who took no active part in the political movements in Italy, Foresti soon became interested in the Giovine Italia, a liberal organization which Mazzini had established. He entered into extensive correspondence with Mazzini, and finally became his official representative in America.
In 1841 Foresti was made president of the Central Association of New York (Congrega Centrale di New York), and in 1850 was appointed delegate of the Triumvirate in America (delegato del Triumvirato), an organization the object of which was to give moral and material support to Mazzini.
To further the cause of the latter, Foresti in 1850 founded an Italian review in New York entitled L’Estde Italiano, which, however, had a short existence.
In May 1853 Franklin Pierce appointed Foresti United States consul to Genoa, but the Sardinian government decided peremptorily not to receive him. Gradually, however, Foresti began to recognize the benefits and advantages of a constitutional monarchy and went over to the side of the Sardinian government.
He finally sailed for Italy in 1856, taking up his residence in Piedmont. His friends, including some of the leading citizens of his adopted country, then applied to President Buchanan for his appointment as United States consul at Genoa, to which post he was finally assigned in May 1858. Brief, however, was his enjoyment of the distinction, for he died of dropsy on September 14, 1858.
In the United States, Foresti was for over 20 years professor of Italian in Columbia College. During much of this time, he held a similar title at the University of the City of New York. He took an interest in Young Italy, and became the official representative of Giuseppe Mazzini in the United States.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
