Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/242

 ROSSI

204

ROSSINI

voted the remainder of his life to literary activity. His sanctity and learning won for him a wide reputa- tion, and his correspondence with the great men of his time fills nine volumes. His works, written in elegant Latin, show a vast erudition and a mind at once critical and profound. Amongst his dogmatic 'RTitings must be mentioned the masterly work "De Peccato Originah" (Venice, 1757). He is famous especially for his new edition of the works of St. Thomas with a commentary (Venice, 1745-60, 24 vols.). He was also the author of thirty-two excellent dissertations on the life and writings of the Angelic Doctor, which have been placed in the first volume of the Leonine Edition of St. Thomas's works. De Rossi also ranks high as a writer on historical, pa- tristic, and liturgical subjects. Besides his numerous works which are published, he left thirty volumes in

manuscript.

HuRTER, Nomendator, s. v.

J. A. McHuGH.

Rossi, Bernardo de. See Editions of the Bible.

Rossi, Pellegrino, publicist, diplomat, economist, and statesman, b. at Carrara, Italy, 13 July, 1787; assassinated at Rome, 15 November, 1848. He studied at the Universities of Pavia and Bologna, in which latter city he practised law with great success. In 1874 he obtained the chair of criminal law and civil procedure. Rossi being an advocate of Italian imity and independence, and a member of the Car- bonari, Joachim Murat, King of Naples, wh9 then aspired to the sovereignty of the entire peninsula, appointed him commissioner general of the provinces lying between the Po and the Tronto; but on Murat's defeat at Tolentino, Rossi was forced to fly to France, whence, after Waterloo, he betook himself to Geneva. At Geneva he began a private course of Roman law which gained him a chair in the university of that city, notwithstanding the fact that he was a Catholic. Having married a Protestant Genevese lady, he was elected to the Cantonal Council of Geneva, where he played a prominent role in the compilation of the laws on mortgages, civil marriage, and court proce- dure. In 1832 he presented to the Swiss Federal Diet a plan of a constitution (called the Palto Rossi) based on that of 1803, which was approved by the Diet, but rejected by the communes. Notwithstanding his political activity he continued his deep study of law. Between 1819 and 1821, with the collaboration of Sismondi and Bello, he published the "Annales de legi.slation et d'6conomie politique", which in a short time gained him a world-wide reputation. With Guizot he established the doctrinaire school, the juridical principles of which did not differ fundament- ally from those of the eighteenth century. In 1829 he published his "Trait6 de droit p6nal", an author- itative work of the time.

The hostility caused by his projected constitution led him, in 1833, to seek the chair of political economy in the College de France, and although the Acad6mie des Sciences Morales had presented another candi- date, Ro.ssi was succrjssful. In the beginning he met with HOirw oi)i)Osition, which, however, he overcame, chiefly through the influence of (iuizot, minister of Ivouis Philippe, wlio knew that Rossi shanid his politi- cal and juridical views. In 1834 he taught constitu- tional law in the university; nor did he fail to gain further honours and distmctions, being elected a member of the Acarl6mie des Sciencf« Morales (1836) and made a peer of France (1839), and an officer of the Legion of Honour (1841). In 1845 he withdrew from the profesHorial chair to embrarie a diplomatic career. He was wmt to Rome to negotiat<; the sup- pression of the Jesuits, at first only as an envoy extra^^rdinary, later as an ainba-ssador, with the title of Count. On the fall of Ixjuis Philippe ho withdrew

into private life, watching the development of the Revolution in the first years of the pontificate of Pius IX. He believed that the age demanded a regime of liberty, but that it should be granted gradually. The pope, who knew his opinions on this subject, appointed him minister of justice in the Fabbri ministry, on the fall of which Rossi was invited to draw up a pro- gramme. His intention was to re-establish the papal authority, together with a form of constitutional government, but above all to restore public order. Such a programme was as displeasing to the Con- servative Party, who distrusted the prevailing views, as to the advanced Republicans, who hated Rossi as the representative of the constitutional monarchy. Like Pius IX, he favoured the Italian league, but wished to preserve the independence of each state. This programme, and the energy which Rossi ex- hibited against the disturbers of public order, caused him to be sentenced to death by the secret societies. On 15 November, 1848, Rossi was on his way to the Legislative Assembly (in the Palazzo della Cancel- leria) to explain his programme; hardly had he seated himself in his carriage, when an assassin stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. He expired almost im- mediately. Pius IX, on hearing the tidings, exclaimed : "Count Ro.ssi has died a martjT of duty." The assassination was for the secret societies the signal to spread the flames of the revolution which drove Pius IX into exile and established the Roman Republic.

The most important of Rossi's writings is his "Cours d'economie politique", a classic work, based on the theories of Smith, Say, Malthus, and Ricardo. Like these authors, he favoured freedom of trade, labour, and manufacture; and in general, not clearly foreseeing the diflSculties of economic life, he wished to solve them by the free play of individual force and intelligence rather than by legislation. But he recog- nized the great economic utility of associations. A characteristic note of his scientific speculations is his fondness for considering social phenomena from a mathematical point of view, so that he was called the geometrician of economy. This made him attach great importance to statistics. In politics he is the father of the principle of non-intervention, and pub- lished an essay on the subject. A most distinguished representative of the middle-class Liberal doctrinaires, of the type of the "men of 1830", Pellegrino Rossi died by the assassin's poignard as the inevitable result of a policy too advanced for the supporters of the Holy Alliance, and too backward for the generation that was being prepared by Cavour.

Garnier, Notice stir la vie et leu travaux de M. Rossi (Paris, 1849); Reybau, Economistes modernes (Paris, 1862); Processi dell' assasainio del conte P. Rossi (Rome, 18.54) in Hist. pol. Blat- ter, XXVI, 109 sqq.; Civilld Catt., 2nd series, VIII; D'Ideville, Le comte Pellegrino Rossi (Paris, 1887).

U. Benigni.

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio, b. 29 Feb., 1792, at Pesaro in the Romagna; d. 13 Nov., 1868, at Passy, near Paris. He w;us twice married: in 1822 to Isabella Colbrand; in 1847 to Olympe PelLssier, who survived him, but he had no children. Rossini was not only the chief operatic comjjoser of his time, but also a great innovator. Lesueur, in 1824, the greatest com- l)Oser of the French s(}iool, said that "his ardent genius had opened a new road and marked a new (!i)och in musical art". In the; opera scria for long recit.'itives he substituted mort; singing; in the oixra hnffa he inaugurat(!d a new comedy style. He introdueed many new instruments into the Italian orchestras. To him belongs the irreghiera for a whole body of voices, as first introduced in "Mo.se". He had a good bari- tone voice, and was an excellent pianist. In 1804 he had lessons in singing and pianoforte playing at Bologna. Two y(!ars later he anted as musical director to a travelling (!om])any, but soon returned to Bologna to study composition at the Lyceum. Uia first sue-