Friends of Hastings Cemetery

AS B28

In Memory of
PAOLO EMILIANO GIUDICI Born at Mussomeli Sicily. Died at Glenmoor near Hastings

14th Aug 1872 Aged 60 years

Paolo born on 3 June 1812 in Mussomeli (Caltanissetta) to Salvatore Giudice and Antonia Cinquemani. Due to poor health he was educated by tutors, until entering the Dominican convent of San Zita in Palermo without a vocation, but desired by his family.    Here he took the name of fra'Vincenzo.  In the Convent library he broadened  his studies learning English, French and Spanish.  He also studied painting and engraving and wrote articles for Scientific and Literary Ephemeris for Sicily. Over the years his superiors noted he was far more interested in artistic and political interests, and he separated from the order in 1840.  Unable to find a position in Sicily, and increasingly upsetting the authorities by his friendship with anti-bourbon Sicilians of the liberal movement, he went into exile in Tuscany.

Having settled in Florence, lacking means and relationships, he was protected some sources say “adopted by”) by Annibale Emiliani whose surname he assumed, adding it to his own di Giudici.  In 1844 he published in Florence the History of Italian Literature (Storia della letteratura italiana), which he began to write, according to the declaration of the same author, at the age of twenty-seven, that is, in the Palermitan years

This was a significant success and in 1848 he became professor of Italian literature at Pisa, but after a few months was deprived of the chair on account of his liberal views in politics. On the re-establishment of the Italian kingdom he became professor of aesthetics (resigning 1862) and secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence, and in 1867 was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy, serving until 1870.

He held a prominent place as an historian, his works including a Storia del teatro (1860), and Storia dei comuni italiani (1861), besides a translation of Macaulay's History of England (1856).

In December 1862 in Tonbridge, he married a wealthy Englishwoman Ann Alsager.  For the next decade, he mainly resided in England, travelling with his wife through Europe . died at “Glenmoor in England, on the 8th of September 1872.
[For a fuller story see here.]

• An interesting footnote………

Hastings and St Leonards Observer -
Saturday 01 February 1879

Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 29 March 1879

The Late Signora Giudici.—The will of Mrs. Ann Emiliani Giudici, late of Glenmoor, Silverhill Park, Hastings, has been proved by deceased's three nephews, the executors, the personal estate being sworn under £80,000.  Among the legacies may be noted £20,000 upon trust for her sister Hannah for life; and £100 each to the (Governesses' Benevolent Institution, Sackville-street, the Royal Hospital for Incurables, Putney, the Church Missionary Society, and the Protestant Reformation Society.  The residuary legatees are testatrix's said three nephews.