Eleuterio Felice Foresti (1789September 14, 1858) was an Italian patriot and scholar.

Biography

He was born at

Conselice Conselice ( rgn, Cunsëls) is a town and ''comune'' of about 10,000 people located in the Po River Valley, part of the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. History Originally it was a Roman harbor (known in Latin as ''Caput Silicis'', lite ...

, graduated at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

, practiced law at Ferrara, and in 1816 was made

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

Crespino Crespino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rovigo in the Italian region Veneto, located about southwest of Venice and about southeast of Rovigo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,111 and an area of .All demographics ...

and became prominent in politics. In 1816, he also joined the

Carbonari The Carbonari () was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay and Ru ...

. As a consequence, in 1819 he was arrested. After two years in Piombi dungeon, and an unsuccessful attempt to take his own life, he was condemned to die on the public square of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, but when, with others, he was taken out for execution, the sentence was changed to “carcere duro” in Spielberg fortress for 20 years. In 1836, shortly after the death of Emperor

Francis I of Austria Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response ...

, Foresti and others were liberated, but condemned to perpetual exile in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. 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 Young Italy ( it, La Giovine Italia) was an Italian political movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. After a few months of leaving Italy, in June 1831, Mazzini wrote a letter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, in which he asked him to uni ...

, and became the official representative of

Giuseppe Mazzini Giuseppe Mazzini (, , ; 22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872) was an Italian politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the in ...

in the United States. He took up residence in Italy (

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

) again in 1856. In 1858 he was appointed United States consul at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, where he died.

Works

He published an edition of Ollendorff's Italian grammar (1846), and ''Crestomazia italiana'' (1846). He wrote “Twenty Years in the Dungeons of Austria,” for the ''Watchman and Crusader'' in 1856.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foresti, Eleuterio Felice 1793 births 1858 deaths 19th-century Italian lawyers Carbonari Columbia University faculty New York University faculty University of Bologna alumni