| Title | Chapter Twelve: Postscript: 1741-1748 |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Ceva and Turin |
| Contributor | Thérèse Ridley (translator) |
| Thérèse Ridley (contributions by) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0483.12 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0483/chapters/10.11647/obp.0483.12 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Thérèse Ridley |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2026-04-09 |
| Long abstract | Chapter Twelve (1741-1747) is a supplement to the Vita, providing some account of G.’s last years, in Ceva and Turin. In Ceva (1738-1744) G. suffered the most pleasant of his terms, under the kindly Giuseppe de Magistris. Then, on 1 September 1744, he was moved to the citadel in Turin. Here he wrote various petitions to recover his effects, books and writings, left in Geneva, and plundered by Felice Guastaldi. This was nothing, however, in comparison with the brutality G. endured at the hands of his immediate gaoler, the sadistic Caramelli. He inflicted endless torture, physical and mental, on the aged G. From December 1744, the governor, di Breglio, began to care for G., but Caramelli was only emboldened. He flatly disobeyed orders about G.’s two hours’ exercise a day, as well as locking him up in a freshly whitewashed room for a week, and denying him winter heating.It is possible to reconstruct a list of G.’s reading in prison, much enhanced by access to the library of Arthur de Villettes, secretary to the English ambassador in Turin. G. was able to compose four vast works in prison: apart from the Vita: Discorsi sopra gli Annali di Tito Livio, Apologia de’ Scolastici Teologici (on the Church fathers), Istoria del Pontificato di Gregorio Magno, and L’Ape ingegnosa, all first published in recent times. G. died on 17 March 1748. |
| Print length | 54 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
| THEMA |
|
| BISAC |
|
| Keywords |
|
Therese Ridley completed her Honours degree at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Melbourne). She studied History (with the doyen of the Melbourne School), German, Chinese and Japanese, having studied French at high school. She acquired Italian by spending many years in Italy, accompanying her husband (a specialist in Roman History and the History of Rome) on his study leave every fourth year, and for the past twenty years spending every November in Rome, an annual research trip. She spends all her time in the Vatican Library. She is also the translator from German of Friedrich Münzer, Rӧmische Adelsparteien Adelsfamilien, a classic study, originally 1920, listed in every bibliography on Roman politics, but never subsequently referred to. This was instantly published by the oldest American University Press, Johns Hopkins, in 1999. Reviews stated that “Therese Ridley’s remarkable translation of the book and her re-editing of Münzer’s bibliography at last give the English-speaking world access to Münzer’s intellectual legacy” : Ronald Weber, History, reviews of new books 28 (2000). This translation has, in fact, now superseded the original German in references. For the past twenty years Therese Ridley has devoted herself to the life and works of Pietro Giannone, reading and translating his enormous bibliography. She has traced him the length and breadth of Italy. She is well known, of course, to the doyen of Giannone studies, Professor Giuseppe Ricuperati of Torino.
Therese Ridley completed her Honours degree at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Melbourne). She studied History (with the doyen of the Melbourne School), German, Chinese and Japanese, having studied French at high school. She acquired Italian by spending many years in Italy, accompanying her husband (a specialist in Roman History and the History of Rome) on his study leave every fourth year, and for the past twenty years spending every November in Rome, an annual research trip. She spends all her time in the Vatican Library. She is also the translator from German of Friedrich Münzer, Rӧmische Adelsparteien Adelsfamilien, a classic study, originally 1920, listed in every bibliography on Roman politics, but never subsequently referred to. This was instantly published by the oldest American University Press, Johns Hopkins, in 1999. Reviews stated that “Therese Ridley’s remarkable translation of the book and her re-editing of Münzer’s bibliography at last give the English-speaking world access to Münzer’s intellectual legacy” : Ronald Weber, History, reviews of new books 28 (2000). This translation has, in fact, now superseded the original German in references. For the past twenty years Therese Ridley has devoted herself to the life and works of Pietro Giannone, reading and translating his enormous bibliography. She has traced him the length and breadth of Italy. She is well known, of course, to the doyen of Giannone studies, Professor Giuseppe Ricuperati of Torino.