Politi, Alessandro

Politi, Alessandro an Italian writer, was born July 10, 1679, at Florence. After studying under the Jesuits, he entered at the age of fifteen the Congregation of the Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools, and was conspicuous among its members by his rare erudition. He was called upon to teach rhetoric and peripatetic philosophy at Florence in 1700. Barring a period of about three years, during which he was a professor of theology at Genoa (1716-18), he spent the greatest part of his life in his native city, availing himself of the manifold resources he could find there to improve his knowledge of Greek literature, his favorite study. In 1733 he was called to the chair of eloquence vacant in the University of Pisa. Accustomed to live among his books aloof from the world, Politi was of an irritable disposition, and sensitive in the extreme to the lightest criticism. He was fond of displaying his erudition, and his useless digressions make the reading of his works a most harassing job. He died July 25,1752. He left, Philosophia Peripatetica, ex mente sancti Thontae (Florence. 1708, 12mo): — De puatria in testamentis condendis potestate, lib. 4 (ibid. 1712, 8vo): — Etmstathii Commentarii in Homeri Iliadem, with notes and Latin version (ibid. 1730-35, 3 vols. fol.): — Eustuthii Commentarii in Dionysium Perietem, Greek and Latin (Cologne, 1742, 8vo): — Orationes XII ad Academiuam Pisanuam (Lucca, 1746, 8vo): — Martyrologyim Romanum castigatuum (vol. 1, Florence, 1751, 8vo); and many unpublished works. All his orations Lave been collected (Pisa, 1774, 8vo). See Fabroni. Vitae Itatioarum, vol. 8; Tipaldo, Biogs. degli Ital. illustri, vol. 4. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, 40, 616.