C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791–1863)
Belli, Giuseppe Gioachino (bel’lē). A noted Roman humorist and satirical poet (1791–1863). He wrote in the popular dialect of the Trastevere; and in early life scourged the tyranny of the popes and the scandalous lives of the clergy. Becoming afterward a zealous convert to the faith of the Roman Church, he endeavored to call in and destroy the indiscretions of his youth. In his last years he published a translation of the Roman Breviary. His published sonnets amount to more than 2,000; his other published Italian verses fill four considerable volumes; while two-thirds of his vast remains have never been gathered and edited.