Vittorio Genovesi (Roccabascerana, 1887 – Rome, 1967) was a Jesuit priest, theologian, and Latin poet. Genovesi entered the Society of Jesus on 3 December 1901 at the age of 14 in the novitiate of Soresina (Cremona). After his juniorate (carissimato) – a three-years humanities curriculum – at Soresina (1903–1906), Genovesi completed his philosophical studies in Cremona at the Collegio Vida in 1909. In 1912, he was ordained priest in Chieri (Turin) in 1912, where he also completed his theological studies in 1913. In 1919, Genovesi was assigned to the so-called “Roman Province” of the Society of Jesus, and specifically to the Apostleship of Prayer, a religious association whose direction had been entrusted to the Jesuits by the Holy See. In 1920, he took his final vows in Rome, where he stayed for the remainder of his life.

Genovesi carried out a variety of tasks within the Catholic Church. During the 1920s, he served as Chairman of the Apostleship of Prayer and chief editor for Il Messaggero del Sacro Cuore, its official journal; during the 1930s, he travelled extensively across Italy to promote the Apostleship of Prayer. From the 1920s onwards, Genovesi also took part in an anti-Protestant campaign and published books and articles on the subject. In 1942, because of his qualities in Latin poetry composition, Pope Pius XII chose him as hymnographer for the Sacred Congregation of Rites. In 1951, he was nominated advisor (consultore) of the same Congregation concerning the canonization of saints. In 1952, he was nominated advisor of the Sacred Congregation of the Council (catechetical section).

Several cultural institutions in Rome granted Genovesi a regular membership. The Jesuit was nominated member of the Pontifical Academy of Arcadia under the name of Eurideo Pallanzio in 1945; in June 1954 he became a regular member (socio ordinario) of the Institute of Roman Studies, and in June 1957 a regular member of the Centre of Ciceronian Studies (For the biography of Genovesi, see Genovesi 1967; Zanfredini 2001).

Genovesi is also known for his prolific activity as a Latin poet, which began in 1928 during a period of forced immobility due to an eye-sickness (Genovesi 1967: 50). Vito Giustiniani described him as the last representative of a flourishing tradition of Jesuit Neo-Latin poetry (Giustiniani 1979: 47). Genovesi familiarized himself with Latin language and literature during his juniorate at Soresina. His teacher of rhetoric, Giuliano Cassiani Ingoni SJ (1872–1955), had been a disciple of Ottavio Cagnacci SJ (1837–1902), a respected Latinist and Latin poet who had also served as ‘revisore’ for the Latin poems of Pope Leo XIII (see Mondrone 1941: 355–356; Genovesi 1967: 50). Genovesi’s Latin works were held in high esteem by Italian Latinists and Neo-Latin authors of his time, as well as by members of the Catholic clergy (including Popes Pius XI and Pius XII). To date, the most comprehensive study of Genovesi’s Latin poetry is Corallo (1945).

Genovesi was awarded three golden medals (Hyle, 1936; Taedium Vitae, 1943; Patrius Amor, 1947) and eight magnae laudes at the Certamen Hoeufftianum in Amsterdam, two first prizes at the Latin poetry competition “Teodorico Ruspantini” in Rome (In Funere Guilelmi Marconi, 1939; Sirpiculus chartarius, 1941) and one first prize at the Latin prose competition at the Institute of Roman Studies (Antiquam exquirite matrem: Roma lumen orbis, 1947). His poetry is wide-ranging in genre, meter, and subject matter and touches upon philosophical, historical, theological, and political issues. Several poems are nationalist in tone, and some of these praise Fascism for fulfilling Rome’s mission as beacon of Christian civilization. Genovesi sent some of his poems in praise of Fascism to Mussolini, adding personal dedications to him (see further in Nicolo Bettegazzi’s PhD dissertation Ideologies of Latin in Fascist Italy (1922-1943): the language of Rome between Fascism and Catholicism). In later editions of Genovesi’s work (Genovesi 1951; Genovesi 1959), the Jesuit erased every reference to Mussolini and to the Fascist regime. Stemming from the area of Irpinia, Genovesi signed many of his compositions with the name “Hirpinius”.

Bibliography

Latin texts

Genovesi, Vittorio. 1935. 'Imperii Via ad Clivum Capitolinum', Alma Roma 22 (4): 62-63.

———. 1937. 'In Instauratum Imperium', Alma Roma 24 (7): 115-116.

———. 1938. 'Ara Pacis Augustae in Urbe restituta', Alma Roma 25 (11): 170.

———. 1942a. Carmina patriae. Rome: Messaggero del Sacro Cuore.

———. 1942b. Carmina. Testo latino e traduzione italiana. Rome: Messaggero del Sacra Cuore.

———. 1942c. Carmina fidei. Rome: Messaggero del Sacro Cuore.

Other works

Genovesi, Vittorio. 1946. Poëmatia. Isola del Liri: Edizione Macioce.

———. 1951. Musa Latina. Rome: Casa Editrice Ausonia.

———. 1952. Lyra sacra. Rome: Messaggero del Sacro Cuore.

———. 1959. Victorii Genovesi Carmina / curante Instituto Romanis studiis provehendis. Rome: Desclée et socii editores.

Secondary sources

Abrate, Giuseppe. 1940. ‘Poeti latini dell’era fascista’. Roma: Rivista di Studi e di Vita Romana 18 (9): 304–9.

Binnebeke, Xavier van. 2020. ‘Hoeufft’s Legacy: Neo-Latin Poetry in the Archive of the Certamen Poeticum Hoeufftianum (1923–1943)’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 245–325. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Corallo, Maria. 1945. La poesia latina di Vittorio Genovesi. Milan: Vita e pensiero.

Eberle, Josef. 1961. Viva camena: Latina huius aetatis carmina ; cum commentariolo Iosephi et Linae Ijsewijn-Jacobs de litteris Latinis recentioribus. Turici ; Stuttgardiae: in aedibus Artemidos.

Genovesi, Vittorio. 1967. ‘P. Vittorio Genovesi’. Notizie dei Gesuiti d’Italia 3: 49–51.

Giustiniani, Vito R. 1979. Neulateinische Dichtung in Italien 1850-1950: ein unerforschtes Kapitel italienischer Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

IJsewijn, Jozef. 1961. ‘Conspectus poetarum Latinorum saeculi vicesimi’. Euphrosyne 3: 149–90.

Lamers, Han, and Bettina Reitz-Joosse. 2016. ‘Lingua Lictoria: The Latin Literature of Italian Fascism’. Classical Receptions Journal 8 (2): 216–52.

Mondrone, Domenico. 1941. ‘La poesia latina di Vittorio Genovesi’. La Civiltà Cattolica 92 (1): 355–68.

———. 1948. ‘L’inesauribile vena di una latinista: Vittorio Genovesi’. La Civiltà Cattolica 99 (3): 514–22.

Pacitti, Guerrino. 1954. ‘Il latino “lingua viva”. Poeti latini di oggi: Vittorio Genovesi’. Studi romani 2 (1): 70–74.

Pasqualetti, Olindo. 1961. ‘Victorii Genovesi carmina’. Aevum 35: 280–87.

Sacré, Dirk. 2020. ‘The Certamen Hoeufftianum during the Ventennio Fascista: An Exploration (with Unplublished Poems by Vittorio Genovesi and Giuseppe Favaro)’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 199–241. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Zanfredini, M. 2001. ‘Genovesi, Vittorio’. In Diccionario Historico de la Compañía de Jesús, biográfico-temático, edited by Charles E. O’Neill and Joaquin M. Dominguez, 1706–7. Madrid: Universidad Pontificia Comillas.