FRANCHI
200
FRANCIA
obedience and patience, exemplified on tlie occasion
of her husband's banishment, the captivity of Bat^
tista, lier sons' death, and the loss of all her property.
On the death of her husband (1436) she rctii-ed among her oblates at Tor di Specchi, seeking admis- sion for charity's sake, and was made superior. On the occasion of a visit to her son, she fell ill and died on the day she had already foretold. Her canonization was preceded by three processes (1440, 1443, 1451) and Paul V declared her a saint on 9 May, 1608, assigning 9 March as her feast day. Long before that, however, the faithful were wont to venerate her body in the cliurch of Santa Maria Nuova in the Roman Forum, now known as the church of Santa Francesca Ro- mana.
Armellini, Vita di S. Francesca Romanat originally written in the Roman vernacular of the fifteenth century, with an ap- pendix of three panegyrics in the same idiom, and edited by Armellini from a codex in the archives of the Holy See (Rome, 1S82); Acta SS., March, II; Vita di S, Francesca Romana fonda- trice (Rome, 1675); Fullerton, Life of St. Frances of Rome (London, 1855); other lives by Ponzilegjje (Turin, 1S74); Ra- BORT (Paris, 18S4);STEi,EER(Mainz, 1888); Rambutead (Paris, 1900); Rivista Slorica Benedellina (1908), III, 9; Palaez, Visi- oni di S. Francesca Romana in Archivio delta Soc. Romana di storiapalria (1891), 365 sqq. (1892), 251 sqq^ On the interest- ing (eighth century) church of Santa Maria Nuova (now Santa Francesca Romana, in the Roman Forum) see Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma (Rome, 1891), 150-52 ; (Chandlery, Pilgrim Walks in Rome (London, s. d.); Hare, Walks in Rome (London, B. d.).
Francesco Paoli.
Franchi, Ausonio, the pseudonym of Cristoforo BoNAViNO, philosopher; b. 24 February, 1821, at Pegli, province of Genoa; d. 12 September, 1895, at Genoa. He entered the ecclesiastical state, and some time after his ordination to the priesthood, was ap- pointed director of an institution for secondary educa- tion at Genoa. Soon, however, be became imbued with the doctrines of French positivism and German criticism. Doubts arose in his mind, followed by an internal struggle which he describes in his work on the philosophy, of the Italian schools. At the same time, important political events were taking place in Italy, culminating in the revolution of 1848. Misled, as he later says of himself, by a political passion, and also by a kind of philosophical passion, Franchi abandoned the priest's habit and office in 1849, and assumed the name of Ausonio Franchi (i. e. free Italian), indicating thereby his break with his own past and his new as- pirations. Henceforth all his talents were devoted to the cause of intellectual and political liberty. The dogmatic authority of the Church and the despotic authority of the State are the objects of his incessant attacks. Combining Kant's phenomenalism and Comte's positivism, he falls into a sort of relativism and agnosticism. For liim, religious truth and rea- son, Catholicism and freedom, are irreconcilable, and Franchi does not hesitate in his choice.
In 1854 he founded the "Ragione", a religious, politi- cal, and social weekly which was a means of propagat- ing these ideas. Terenzio Mamiani, then Minister of Education, appointed him professor of the history of
f)hilosophy in the University of Pavia (1860), and ater (1863) in the University of Milan, where he re- mained until 1888. No work was published by liim between 1872 and 1889. A change was again taking place in his mind, not now due to passion, but to the professor's more mature reflection. It led to the pub- lication of Franchi's last work, in which he announces his retiu-n to the Church, criticizes his former works and arguments, and denounces the opinions and prin- ciples of his earlier writings. His works are: " Ele- menti di Grammatica generale applicati alle due lingiie italiana e latina" (Genoa, 1848-49), under the name of Cristoforo Bonavino. Under the name of Ausonio Franchi he wrote "La Filosofia delle scuole italiane" (Capolago, 18.52 ; "Appendice", Genoa, 1853) ; " La reli- gione del secolo XIXo" (Lausanne, 1853); "Stuili filosofici e religiosi: Del Sentimento" (Turin, 1851);
"11 Razionalismo del Popolo" (Geneva, 1856); "Let-
ture suUa Storia della Filosofia moderna: Bacone, Des-
cartes, Spinoza, Malebranche" (Milan, 1863); "Sulla
Teorica del Giudizio" (Milan, 1870); "La Caduta del
I'rincipato ecclesiastico e la Restaurazione dell' Im-
pero Germanico" (Milan, 1871); "Saggi di critica e
poleinica" (Milan, 1871-72). He also edited "Ap-
pendice alle Memorie politiche di Felice Orsini"
(Turin, 1858); "Epistolario di Giuseppe La Farina"
(Milan, 1869); and "Scritti politici di Giuseppe La
Farina" (Milan, 1870).
Molinari in Ahiova enciclopedia italiana (6th ed., Turin, 1875—), Suppl. I, 1111; De (Jubernatis, Dictionnaire interna- tional des ecrivains du jour (Florence, 1891), I, 356; Mooney, Ansonio Franchi: The Great Italian Philosopher's Noble Repara- tion in American Catholic Quarterly Review, XV (1890), 325; L'ultima critica di Ausonio Franchi in Civiltii Cattoliea, Series XIV, Vol. IV (1SS9), S sqq., 167 sqq., etc., and several other articles in the same review; Mariano, La philosophic contem- poraine en Italic (Paris, 1868); Angelini, Ausonio Franchi
^^°"^^'^'^"'- C.A.DUBRAT.
Francia (Francesco Raibolini), a famous Bolo- gnese goldsmith, engraver, and artist, b. about 1450; d. in 1517. His family was one of the best in Bologna, and owned land at Zola Predosa His father was a wood-carver, but Francesco entered the guild of goldsmiths (1482), and was elected its head in the following year. His master was one Due, surnamed Francia, doubtless because of his native land, and Francesco adopted this surname, either through grati- tude, or more probably as a valuable trade-mark. Like Pisanello, Verrocchio, Pollaiuolo, and Ghirlan- dajo, he is an example of what Italian art owes to close association with the minor arts. A gradation of the fine arts, the idea of greater or lesser dignity and rank, did not then exist and was to spring up only later, in the school of Michelangelo. This fact imparts to all the SEsthetic manifestations of the classic period that unity and perfection of detail and life which imagina- tion and taste impress on all things. The relations between the goldsmith's art and painting were then particularly close. In this way painting was enabled to rise above the vulgar demands of a pious image- rie of the Giottesque type, and the dry and pedantic learning of Voccello and Andrea del Castagno. Art, ornament, and beauty, which threatened to disap- pear, were thus restored to painting. This is why the "industrial" side of Francia's art, exemplified in his admirable medals, nielli, and enamels, his work as a jeweller, an armourer, and a type-caster, cannot be too strongly insisted on. He is known to have designed the itah'c type for the edition of Virgil published by Aldus Manutius (Venice, 1501). We know also that the invention of engraving is partly due to the art of niello in which Francia was a master. A few prints are ascril^ed to Francia; in the art of engraving he was the first master of Marcantonio Raimondo.
Circumstances, however, impelled Francia to be- come a painter. Very probably he received his first lessons from Francesco Cossa (d. at Bologna, 1485), but it was from Lorenzo Costa that he received his principal instruction. This artist, slightly younger than Francia, lunl recently won renown at Ferrara and returned in 14S3 to Bologna, where he set up his studio in the house occupied by the goldsmith. More than one work (church of the Misericordia, Bentivoglio palace) resulted from their friendly collaboration. Certain pe- culiarities of Francia, his familiar scenic arrangements, the beautiful architecture, the carved thrones of his Ma- donnas, the little angelic musicians seated on steps, are touches of Ferrarese taste which proclaim theinfluence of C'Osta. In landscape Francia felt later the in- fluence of Perugino (1446-1524), who, in 1497, was painting his "Virgo Gloriosa" at San Giovanni in Monte. These intluenocs, however, should be ac- knowledged with all the reserve imposed in the case of an already mature man, who had long been an artist of repute when he began to paint. The earliest ex-
