GENOVESI (ANTHONY), an eminent Italian Writer, was born on the 1st of November 1712, at Castiglione, near Salerno, in the kingdom of Naples. From his earliest years he showed an uncommon capacity; but after receiving such education as his native village could afford, his father obliged him to devote himself to the study of scholastic theology, with a view to the ecclesiastical profession. In a short time he distinguished himself as a proficient in dialectics; but having formed an attachment to a young woman, he was on the point of sacrificing to her all his professional prospects, when his father, who had obtained a knowledge of the circumstance, removed him to another village, where he found a priest who diverted his attention to different objects. Having been afterwards excommunicated by the Archbishop of Conza for acting a part in a comedy, he returned to Castiglione; where, having found his mistress married, he reassumed the cassock, and took priest's orders at Salerno in 1736. Here he soon distinguished himself so much by his talents and knowledge, that the Archbishop of this town confided to him the Chair of Eloquence. At this period Genovesi was a mere school theologian; but a friend of his, a young ecclesiastic, now made him aware, that there were sources of knowledge beyond the scholastic sphere, more extensive, more interesting, and more real, than those to which he had hitherto applied. Genovesi entered into this new intellectual world by the perusal of some romances; from these he proceeded to the study of history; and stepping from one subject to another, he finally applied himself to the study of modern philosophy, and read with attention the works of Leibnitz and Locke. In the hope of acquiring still farther information, he repaired to the capital; and as he did not possess the necessary means of maintaining himself there, he resolved to exercise the profession of an advocate; but becoming disgusted with the details of practice, he soon sacrificed his hopes of fortune to the pleasures of study. He improved his knowledge of the Greek, and of several of the modern languages; attended all the most celebrated professors of the University of Naples; and soon perceived the imperfections of the existing system of public instruction.
Notwithstanding the progress which philosophy had made in other countries, the kingdom of Naples was, at that period, in a state almost retrograde, or, at least, stationary. Genovesi felt this, and he resolved to accomplish certain reforms in the system of education, with a view to the amelioration of the condition of his countrymen. None ever succeeded better in this generous design. Although there existed at Naples a University, celebrated for the learning of
several of its Professors, the pupils had long been accustomed to carry on their studies in private schools. Genovesi having conceived the design of opening one of these seminaries, he procured the appointment of extraordinary Professor of Metaphysics in the University, in order that he might appear before the public in a known character. He had formed peculiar methods of his own in all the faculties which constitute the philosophical course; and his first Essays induced him to publish his Elements of Metaphysics, of which the first volume appeared in 1743; and afterwards, in 1745, his System of Logic.
In these two works, he made ample use of the doctrines of Bacon, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Locke; and, having substituted philosophical doubt for implicit belief; the observation of nature for the speculations of the schools, and reason for authority,—this was sufficient to cause him to be denounced as an infidel, or at least as an irreligious person, by those who still adhered to the scholastic methods. He would probably have fallen a sacrifice to these prejudices, had he not been supported by Galiani, Archbishop of Tarentum, Grand Almoner of the King, and Grand Master of the University; but, notwithstanding this protection, he experienced some trouble and difficulty in obtaining the professorship of Moral Philosophy; and he was disappointed in an attempt to procure the chair of Theology.
The unjust and obstinate hostility which he suffered on account of his theological works diverted him, for some time, from this dangerous path of inquiry, and brought him back to that of philosophy. He published a continuation of his Elements of Metaphysics, but, with every new volume he continued to experience the censures and opposition of the partisans of the scholastic routine. Among these were the Cardinal Spinelli, Archbishop of Naples, and an Abbé Magli, whom Genovesi covered with ridicule in his work entitled Lettere a un Amico Provinciale. In spite of these continual jarrings, Genovesi obtained the approbation and esteem of Pope Benedict XIV., of several Cardinals, and of most of the learned men who at that period flourished in Italy. Of this number was Intieri, a Florentine, who having spent a long time at Naples, became much attached to that country. This man, as distinguished for his philanthropical qualities, as for the extent and solidity of his acquirements, was still more estimable on account of the use which he made of his fortune. It is to him that Italy is indebted for her first Chair of Political Economy; he founded it, at his own expence, with the sanction of government, in the University of Naples, under three conditions, viz. that the lectures should be given in
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Genovesi. Italian; that Genovesi should be the first professor; and that, after his death, no ecclesiastic should succeed him.
Genovesi opened his first course of lectures on the 5th of November 1754, with great success. The novelty and the interest of the subject, the eloquent style and agreeable manner of the professor, attracted a crowd of auditors, and made a deep and lively impression. Nothing was talked of but agriculture and commerce. To gratify the taste of the public for these new inquiries, he afterwards published his Lectures on Commerce, and Carey's Account of the Trade of England, translated into Italian by his brother, and enriched with Notes by himself. His Lectures on Commerce was indisputably the most interesting work he had hitherto published. There are some errors, indeed, in his method, and even in his doctrines; but the work contains many important truths relative to every department of public administration, and a good application of analysis to subjects which had not hitherto been sufficiently investigated. Finally, it had the merit of being the first work which introduced into Italy, and particularly into the kingdom of Naples, a taste for the study of political economy.
The great success of these lectures, which were delivered in Italian, induced Genovesi to draw up a complete code of philosophy in that language. It was at this time the custom in Italy, and particularly at Naples, to teach every thing in Latin; a practice which prevented knowledge from spreading among those classes to whom that language was not familiar; and the Neapolitans, at that period, wanted education perhaps more than any other people. He had published, in Italian, his Meditazioni Filosofiche, on religion and morals, and his Lettere Accademiche, on the utility of the arts and sciences; a treatise written in opposition to the well known work of Rousseau on that subject. Following out his plan, he began to recast all his Latin works, to improve their form, and to give them a more interesting character. The first which he published was his treatise on Logic; a work which went through several editions. He afterwards published his Metaphysics, divided into three parts; the first containing an essay on cosmology, the second on theology, and the third on anthropology. In 1767, he published part of a work on the Science of the Rights and Duties of Man; but this work was never completed. In all his writings, and particularly in his Meditations and Letters, the style is somewhat affect-
ed; at the same time, they present us with a good exposition of the ideas and systems of the most celebrated philosophers. Genovesi.
After the suppression of the order of the Jesuits, when it became a question with the government, whether they ought to be reinstated in their superintendence of public instruction, Genovesi was consulted, and his advice was, to replace the scholastic chairs, by schools of mathematics, physics, and history; and he proposed one chair for the illustration of Cicero's Offices.
From the commencement of the year 1763, Genovesi had felt the symptoms of a dangerous malady; but he continued to teach and to write to the last day of his life; and before his death, he had the satisfaction of witnessing the great success of his labours. Since the days of Telesius and Campanella, no School had more credit and celebrity at Naples than that of Genovesi. Pupils, some of them men of the most illustrious rank, flocked to his lectures; and those who heard him generally adopted his ideas and followed his maxims. He handled the most abstruse subjects in the most agreeable manner, and in a style almost poetical; a circumstance which gave him a great command over the attention, as well as over the judgment, of his pupils. Indeed, all that Italy has since produced in philosophical and economical science may be said to have originated in the School which he founded. He died of an attack of dropay, on the 22d of September 1769, aged about fifty-seven.
Such is the account of Genovesi given in the Biographie Universelle. (Tome XVII. p. 86.) The following list of his works is taken from Fabroni: * 1. Disciplinarum metaphysicarum Elementa mathematicum in morem adornata, 1744—1751, 4 vols. 8vo. 2. Elementorum artis logico-critice libri quinque, Naples, 1745. 3. Discorso sopra alcuni trattati d'Agricoltura, Ibid. 1753. 4. Lettere Accademiche, Ibid. 1764. 5. Storia del Commercio della Gran Bretagna, &c. 1757. 6. Delle Lezioni di Commercio. 7. Discorso sopra l'Agricoltura, with a translation of Tull's Husbandry. 8. Discorso sul volgarizzazione del Saggio Francese sull'Economia de' grain, Naples, 1765. 9. Meditazioni Filosofiche sulla religione e sulla morale, Ibid. 1766. 10. Della Dicesina, o sia della filosofia del giusto e dell'onesto, 1766—1776, 3 vols. 11. Universæ Christianæ Theologiae elementa dogmatica, historica, critica, a posthumous work, Venice, 1771, 2 vols. 4to.
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* Fabroni, Vitæ Italo-um doctrina excellentium qui sæculis 17 et 18 floruerunt.