from England by the alien nominees of Rome. In 1253, upon being commanded to provide in his own diocese for a papal nephew, he wrote a letter of expostulation and refusal, not to the pope himself but to the commissioner, Master Innocent, through whom he received the mandate. The text of the remonstrance, as given in the Burton Annals and in Matthew Paris, has possibly been altered by a forger who had less respect than Grosseteste for the papacy. The language is more violent than that which the bishop elsewhere employs. But the general argument, that the papacy may command obedience only so far as its commands are consonant with the teaching of Christ and the apostles, is only what should be expected from an ecclesiastical reformer of Grosseteste’s time. There is much more reason for suspecting the letter addressed “to the nobles of England, the citizens of London, and the community of the whole realm,” in which Grosseteste is represented as denouncing in unmeasured terms papal finance in all its branches. But even in this case allowance must be made for the difference between modern and medieval standards of decorum.
Grosseteste numbered among his most intimate friends the Franciscan teacher, Adam Marsh (q.v.). Through Adam he came into close relations with Simon de Montfort. From the Franciscan’s letters it appears that the earl had studied a political tract by Grosseteste on the difference between a monarchy and a tyranny; and that he embraced with enthusiasm the bishop’s projects of ecclesiastical reform. Their alliance began as early as 1239, when Grosseteste exerted himself to bring about a reconciliation between the king and the earl. But there is no reason to suppose that the political ideas of Montfort had matured before the death of Grosseteste; nor did Grosseteste busy himself overmuch with secular politics, except in so far as they touched the interest of the Church. Grosseteste realized that the misrule of Henry III. and his unprincipled compact with the papacy largely accounted for the degeneracy of the English hierarchy and the laxity of ecclesiastical discipline. But he can hardly be termed a constitutionalist.
Grosseteste died on the 9th of October 1253. He must then have been between seventy and eighty years of age. He was already an elderly man, with a firmly established reputation, when he became a bishop. As an ecclesiastical statesman he showed the same fiery zeal and versatility of which he had given proof in his academical career; but the general tendency of modern writers has been to exaggerate his political and ecclesiastical services, and to neglect his performances as a scientist and scholar. The opinion of his own age, as expressed by Matthew Paris and Roger Bacon, was very different. His contemporaries, while admitting the excellence of his intentions as a statesman, lay stress upon his defects of temper and discretion. But they see in him the pioneer of a literary and scientific movement; not merely a great ecclesiastic who patronized learning in his leisure hours, but the first mathematician and physicist of his age. It is certainly true that he anticipated, in these fields of thought, some of the most striking ideas to which Roger Bacon subsequently gave a wider currency.
See the Epistolae Roberti Grosseteste (Rolls Series, 1861) edited with a valuable introduction by H. R. Luard. Grosseteste’s famous memorial to the pope is printed in the appendix to E. Brown’s Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum (1690). A tract De phisicis, lineis, angulis et figuris was printed at Nuremberg in 1503. A French poem, Le Chastel d’amour, sometimes attributed to him, has been printed by the Caxton Society. Two curious tracts, the “De moribus pueri ad mensam” (printed by Wynkyn de Worde) and the “Statuta familiae Roberti Grosseteste” (printed by J. S. Brewer in Monumenta Franciscana, i. 582), may be from his pen; but the editor of the latter work ascribes it to Adam de Marsh. There is less doubt respecting the Reules Seynt Robert, a tract giving advice for the management of the household of the countess of Lincoln. For Grosseteste’s life and work see Roger Bacon’s Opus majus (ed. J. H. Bridges, 1897, 2 vols.) and Opera quaedam inedita (ed. J. S. Brewer, Rolls Series, 1859); M. Paris’s Chronica majora (ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 1872–1883, 5 vols.); and the Lives by S. Pegge (1793) and F. S. Stevenson (1899). (H. W. C. D.)
GROSSETO, a town and episcopal see of Tuscany, capital of
the province of Grosseto, 90 m. S.S.E. of Pisa by rail. Pop.
(1901) 5856 (town), 8843 (commune). It is 38 ft. above sea-level,
and is almost circular in shape; it is surrounded by fortifications,
constructed by Francis I. (1574–1587) and Ferdinand I. (1587–1609),
which form a hexagonal enceinte with projecting bastions,
with two gates only. The small cathedral, begun in 1294, is
built of red and white marble alternating, in the Italian Gothic
style; it was restored in 1855. The citadel was built in 1311 by
the Sienese. Grosseto is on the main line from Pisa to Rome,
and is also the starting-point (Montepescali, 8 m. to the N., is the
exact point of divergence) of a branch line to Asciano and
Siena.
The town dates from the middle ages. In 1138 the episcopal see was transferred thither from Rusellae. In 1230 it, with the rest of the Maremma, of which it is the capital, came under the dominion of Siena. By the peace of 1559, however, it passed to Cosimo I. of Tuscany. In 1745 the malaria had grown to such an extent, owing to the neglect of the drainage works, that Grosseto had only 648 inhabitants, though in 1224 it had 3000 men who bore arms. Leopold I. renewed drainage operations, and by 1836 the population had risen to 2392. The malaria is not yet entirely conquered, however, and the official headquarters of the province are in summer transferred to Scansano (1837 ft.), 20 m. to the S.E. by road.
GROSSI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO (?–1699), one of the
greatest Italian singers of the age of bel canto, better known as
Siface, was born at Pescia in Tuscany about the middle of the
17th century. He entered the papal chapel in 1675, and later
sang at Venice. He derived his nickname of Siface from his
impersonation of that character in an opera of Cavalli. It has
generally been said that he appeared as Siface in Alessandro
Scarlatti’s Mitridate, but the confusion is due to his having sung
the part of Mitridate in Scarlatti’s Pompeo at Naples in 1683.
In 1687 he was sent to London by the duke of Modena, to become
a member of the chapel of James II. He probably did much
for the introduction of Italian music into England, but soon
left the country on account of the climate. Among Purcell’s
harpsichord music is an air entitled “Sefauchi’s Farewell.”
He was murdered in 1699 on the road between Bologna and
Ferrara, probably by the agents of a nobleman with whose wife
he had a liaison.
See Corrado Ricci’s Vita Barocca (Milan, 1904).
GROSSI, TOMMASO (1791–1853), Lombard poet and novelist,
was born at Bellano, on the Lake of Como, on the 20th of January
1791. He took his degree in law at Pavia in 1810, and proceeded
thence to Milan to exercise his profession; but the Austrian
government, suspecting his loyalty, interfered with his prospects,
and in consequence Grossi was a simple notary all his life. That
the suspicion was well grounded he soon showed by writing in the
Milanese dialect the battle poem La Prineide, in which he
described with vivid colours the tragical death of Prina, chief
treasurer during the empire, whom the people of Milan, instigated
by Austrian agitators, had torn to pieces and dragged through
the streets of the town (1814). The poem, being anonymous,
was first attributed to the celebrated Porta, but Grossi of
his own accord acknowledged himself the author. In 1816 he
published other two poems, written likewise in Milanese—The
Golden Rain (La Pioggia d’oro) and The Fugitive (La Fuggitiva).
These compositions secured him the friendship of Porta and
Manzoni, and the three poets came to form a sort of romantic
literary triumvirate. Grossi took advantage of the popularity
of his Milanese poems to try Italian verse, into which he sought
to introduce the moving realism which had given such satisfaction
in his earliest compositions; and in this he was entirely successful
with his poem Ildegonda (1814). He next wrote an epic poem,
entitled The Lombards in the First Crusade, a work of which
Manzoni makes honourable mention in I Promessi Sposi. This
composition, which was published by subscription (1826),
attained a success unequalled by that of any other Italian poem
within the century. The example of Manzoni induced Grossi
to write an historical novel entitled Marco Visconti (1834)—a
work which contains passages of fine description and deep
pathos. A little later Grossi published a tale in verse, Ulrico and
Lida, but with this publication his poetical activity ceased.
