Page:Cesare Battisti and the Trentino.djvu/9



is one of the few men who can be called really great because of what they were and what they did. Great, above all, because of the wonderful sacrifice of his life for an idea.

He was born in Trento, February 4, 1875, of wealthy parents, and at Trento he completed his first academic studies. The first years of his youth he was rather delicate in health; the systematic cultivation of sport gave him strength, and he finally acquired such endurance as not only to withstand the hardships of seven months' service in the high mountains as a simple private in the Alpini, but, as he writes, even "getting fat."

Physically Battisti was handsome. Tall, slender, his movements naturally graceful; dark, intelligent eyes animated his fine, pallid features framed by thick, black, somewhat curly hair. Age and experience did not mar his looks, rather they added majesty and strength.

Bodily strength was matched by an equally vigorous mind. Never did I see Cesare Battisti tired, and yet the amount of work he took upon himself was enormous. Already as a student he was not satisfied to attend only one university; while attending courses in history and geography at the Regio Istituto Superiore in Florence and attaining his degree in these subjects with the highest number of points, he was at the same time studying law at the University of Graz, where he also took the prescribed examinations, and where I had the pleasure of being his companion and friend.

His mind was not given to abstract research or theoretical speculations, but to the investigation and examination of practical problems affecting the welfare of his country, which was the sole object of his work as a scientist, journalist, politician and soldier. In fact, almost all his writings deal with Trentino; the principal one, entitled "Il Trentino," published in 1898, is an Page seven