Georgetown's Second Founder

Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetown's Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, this book records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it.

When Grassi assumed his post as president in 1811, he found the university, known then as Georgetown College, to be in a "miserable state." He immediately set out to enlarge and improve the institution, opening the school to non-Catholics, adding to the library's holdings, and winning authority from Congress to confer degrees. Upon his return to Italy, Grassi published News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America, which introduced Italians to the great American experiment in self-governance and offered perspectives on the social reality for Catholics.

A fascinating work for historians of Catholicism and of the Jesuits in particular, this book reveals the pivotal role Italian educators and priests played in the shaping of the new nation's greatest minds.

About the Authors

Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was born in Schilpario, in the region of Lombardy, Italy, in 1775. He studied in the seminary of Bergamo and joined the Jesuits as a novice in 1799. In 1810 he traveled to the United States, where he met John Carroll, Bishop of Baltimore. Grassi served as president of Georgetown University from 1811 to 1817. He returned to Italy in 1817, where he died in Rome in 1849.

Roberto Severino is a professor emeritus of Italian at Georgetown University.

Robert Emmett Curran is a professor emeritus of history at Georgetown University and is the author of the three-volume series A History of Georgetown University (Georgetown University Press, 2010).