Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/770

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GOZZI


688


60ZZ0LI


On 12 March, 1877, Mgr. Canon Professor Pietro Pace, a native of Ciozo, was appointed to succeed Mgr. Grech Delieata, and was consecrated at Rome by Cardinal Howard. Under his administration the seminary was augmented by the installation of a meteorological observatory, which was inaugurated by the celebrated Padre Denza, Director of the Vatican Observatory. During this administration an episcopal educational institute for girls was also established, under the care of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, to whom was also entrusted the direction of the annexed orphan asy- lum. The same bishop provided the diocese with a new episcopal palace and new monasteries, besides laying out large sums of money on the cathedral. In 1889, Mgr. Pace was promoted Archbishop of Rhodes and Bishop of Malta. His successor in the See of Gozo (and actual bishop) is the Reverend G. M. Camil- leri, O.S.A., a native of Valetta (b. 15 March, 1842). Under Mgr. Camilleri's administration the first dio- cesan synod was celebrated, in October, 1903. This synod was of absolute necessity, as the diocese was still governed under the rules of the Synod of Malta of 1703, and consequently lacked a safe guide adapted to the times. Constitutions and decrees were also promulgated and published which gave new life to the working of the diocese.

The cathedral church of Gozo was built in 1697- 1703, by Lorenzo Gafa. Its ground plan is in the form of a Latin cross. Its interior is adorned with fine paintings. The "Massagiere di Maria", an Ital- ian periodical, is recognized in the Diocese of Gozo as the official organ of the sanctuary of the Bl. Virgin ta Pinu.

Ferris. Ecclesiastical Hisloru of Malta (1877); Idem, De- scription of the Churches of Malta and Gozo (1866); Const, et Decrel. Synod. Gaud, primm (Malta, 1904).

Antonio Vella.

Gozzi, Carlo, Italian author, b. at Venice, 1720; d. 180(1. He spent in military service the three years that ensued upon the completion of his school studies. Then impelled by real necessity, since the family means had been wasted away, he, like his brother Gasparo, directed his attention to literature. He be- came a member of the Accademia dei Granelleschi, whose conservative feelings with regard to the native literary traditions he shared, and ere long began an attack upon the dramatic methods of both of the lead- ing playwrights of the time, Chiari and Goldoni. The ignorance and the bombast of the former had excited his ire, while the reform advocated by Goldoni seemed to him undesirable, inasmuch as it involved the abol- ishment of the eminently Italian commedia delV arte. To illustrate his own views as to what was likely to be a popular form of the drama in Venice, be began the composition of his "Fiabe", for whose improbable plots he derived inspiration from various collections of fantastic tales, such as those contained in the Italian "Cunto de li cunti" of Basile, the "Cabinet des f^es", and Oriental compilations. From Spanish plays of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries he also drew no little matter, and withal he freely used his own fancy and indulged lavishly his own satirical powers. There is little order, and hardly any subordination to rule in his "Fiabe", which, it should be said, differ from the commedie deW arte, whose manner they were intended to continue, in that they are often written out in fviU and are not merely .sketchy scenarii. They preserve the stock characters of the commedie delV arte, such as Truffaldino, Hrighella, and Pantalone, and make them speak in dialect, a fact which .stood in the way of their diffusion outside of the Venetian region; and they jumble together the heroic and the grotesque, the serious and the ridiculous, the real and the fan- tastic, bringing on the scene devils, necromancers, kiiiglits, fairies, monsters, and like figures. The high degree of popularity attained by the "Fiabe" in the author's time, and it was enough to enable him to


drive Goldoni from Venice, is explained by the pres- ence in them of many elements of contemporaneous and topical interest. At home they later fell into ob- livion m so far as theatrical repertories are concerned ; for some time they continued to attract attention abroad, as is evinced by the consideration given to them by Goethe, by Schiller, who made a version of one of them, the "Turandot", by Schopenhauer, by Wagner, by Mme de Stael, and others. As J. A. Symonds has said of them, and as Wagner seemed to apprehend, they have in them good material for oper- atic libretti. He prepared some plays based on Spanish dramas in opposition to the spread of the sentimental drama as represented by the drame larmoyant and tragcdie bourgeoise of French origin. Among other works we have from him a chivalrous and romantic poem of satiric import, practically a mock-heroic, the "Marfisa bizzarra"; the almanac entitled "Tartana degl' Influ.ssi", which has attacks on (inldoiii and Chiari ; and the autobiographical " Memoric dcUa sua vita". This last rather entertaining document was called forth by the strictures put upon him by a rival, Pietro Antonio Gratarol, whom he had previously forced from Venice by the ridicule which he had brought upon him in a comedy, the " Droghe d 'amore ' '. The " Memorie ' ' have been translated into English by J. A. Symonds (London, 1890). The " Fiabe" have been edited by E. Masi (Bologna, 1885), with a bibliography of all (jozzi's writings, while his other works may be found in the edition published at Venice in 1802.

Magrini, I tempi, la vita egliscrittidi Carlo Gozzi (Benevento, 1883).

J. D. M. Fouu.

Gozzoli (Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, surnamed GozzoLi), painter; b. at Florence, 1420; d. at Pisa, 1497. He was a pupil of Fra Angelico, and assisted him in his work at Rome and at Orvieto. It was not until 1449 that Benozzo began to work independently. The principal centres of his artistic activity were Montefalco (14.W-1452), Florence (1457-1463), San Gimignano (1464-1467), and Pisa (1469-1485). For the church of San Fortunato, near Montefalco in Um- bria, he executed many frescoes, among them an An- nunciation, a Madonna, and a few altar-pieces; the best-known are the " Glory of St. Fortunatus ", and the "Madonna of the Holy Girdle" (now in the Lateran Museum). Fra Angelico's influence pervades all his work; but the pupil's own personal traits are always in evidence. In 1452 we find him at Montefalco decor- ating the church of St. Francis. The frescoes in the choir are the most noteworthy. The ceiling contains grandiose figures of saints; the end wall, the "Glory of St. Francis"; the side walls, the "Life of the Ser- aphic Patriarch of Assisi " in twelve .scenes. At Flor- ence Piero de' Medici commissioned Benozzo to paint in fresco the chapel of the palace (afterwards known as the Riccardi Palace) which Michelozzo had just built. The altar had already been decorated by a " Nativity" from the hand of Filippo Lippi. On the three prin- cipal walls Gozzoli depicted the " Procession of the Magi in quest of the new-born King". This work, which has kept all its original freshness of colouring, is one of the most successful of the Renaissance periorl, and furnishes a very striking picture of the sumptuous life led in the fifteenth century. All the persoiuigcs in the caravans are portraits, and include the Medici and their court. Along the sides of its single window are clustered rows of angels so exquisitely graceful in design as to be worthy of Fra Angelico.

In the "city of tlie lioautiful towers" (La cittA delle belle torri). Sun diiiiignano, (lozzoli [lainted for the Collegiale a " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian "; along the walls of the choir in San Agostino he .set forth St. Augustine's life in a series of .seventeen frescoes, which he employed as a means of introducing the world of