The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fanfani, Pietro

FANFANI, Pietro, pē-ā-trō fän-fä'nē, Italian philologist, humorist and novelist: b. Pistoia, Italy, 21 April 1815; d. Florence, 4 March 1879. He founded in 1847 the Philological Record, and afterward edited several other periodicals of a like character. His ‘Vocabulary of Tuscan Usage’ and other “vocabularies” are works of high authority. The ‘Writ at Random,’ and the whimsical satire, ‘The Laughing Democritus: Literary Recreations,’ furnish examples of his brimming humor. His novels are ‘Cecco of Ascoli’; ‘Paulina’; ‘The Coachman and his Family,’ etc.