Georgetown's second founder : Fr. Giovanni Grassi's News on the present condition of the Republic of the United States of North America /
This book presents the first English translation of News on the Present State of the Republic of America by Fr Giovanni Antonio Grassi, the ninth president of Georgetown. First published in Italian in 1818, News went through three editions and gave its Italian readership a view of the early American...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC :
Georgetown University Press,
[2021].
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| Summary: | This book presents the first English translation of News on the Present State of the Republic of America by Fr Giovanni Antonio Grassi, the ninth president of Georgetown. First published in Italian in 1818, News went through three editions and gave its Italian readership a view of the early American republic, especially of the situation of Catholics in the United States. Born in Italy in 1775, Giovanni Antonio Grassi entered the Society of Jesus in 1799, and arrived in Baltimore in October of 1810. In 1811 he was appointed president of Georgetown College. He wrote that he was "in a melanchology situation, compelled to be a sorrowful specator to the miserable state of the college." Nevertheless, his tenure was one of achievement. He steered the college through the War of 1812, open the school to non-Catholics and expanded the library. In 1815, the US Congress awarded Georgetown the authority to grant degrees. In 1817, Grassi returned to Italy and published News the following year. The book is a fascinating series of impressions of the young United States, interesting both as an example of European views of the United States, as well as a glimpse into the life of Catholics in the early republic. It appears here for the first time in English, with an afterword by the eminent Georgetown historian Robert Emmett Curran. |
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| Physical Description: | xxxiii, 110 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781647120436 1647120438 |