Joseph Guerin Fucilla (14 December 1897 – 22 March 1981) born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, December 14, 1897, deceased in Evanston,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, March 22, 1981,Joseph Fucilla Papers, 1918-1981
(pdf) was a Hispanist and an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

lexicographer.

Biography

In 1880, his family left

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

in Southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and immigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Fucilla was born in Chicago on 14 December 1897. He was the oldest of seven children of Giovanni Fucilla and Maria Carmela De Marco. He studied at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and taught at the

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

(1921–23), and at the Butler University (1923–1928). He received a doctoral degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1928 and worked as a professor of the Department of Romanic Languages of

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in which he became a full professor in 1936, (

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

professor from 1948) until his retirement in 1966. He was a visiting professor at the

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

and the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

. Fucilla died on 22 March 1981 in Evanston, Illinois.

Works

One of his first works was ¨Our Italian surnames¨, published in Evanston in 1949, in which his knowledge of

onomastics Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...

and genealogy are evidenced. He elaborated a much celebrated Fucilla's Spanish Dictionary (

, 1961) which was reprinted several times and prepared and corrected several anthologies for students of several main literary works of Spanish writers. As a translator of Italian to English he showed a particular interest in the 18th century dramaturgist

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of '' opera seria'' libretti. Early life Me ...

. He mainly studied the Italian imprint in Hispanic and Portuguese literatures. In 1953 he published a series of studies in Madrid, entitled ¨Hispano-Italian Relations¨ and in the same year a more comprehensive work, ¨Studies and Notes (Literary and Historical) published in Rome and Naples. In 1960, he achieved his works on the scholar works on the petrarchists with his famous ¨Studies on petrarchism in

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(

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

; C.S.I.C., 1960). He still published ¨Superbi colli e altri saggi (

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Carucci, 1963). He was the editor of Vicente García de la Huerta's novel ¨The Rachel¨, (Madrid, Anaya, 1965, republished by Catedra, 1981). He is among the most credited scholar on history of Romanic literatures.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fucilla, Joseph G. Romance philologists American lexicographers American Hispanists 1897 births 1981 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Iowa State University faculty Butler University faculty University of Chicago alumni Northwestern University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of Colorado Boulder faculty American people of Italian descent 20th-century lexicographers