Professor of Philosophy and Italian
Centurion, 1864–1894
Born 11 November 1818 in Cavallermaggiore, Italy
Died 5 October 1894 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Woodlawn Cemetery
, Bronx, New York
Proposed by Charles Butler and James L. Graham Jr.
Elected 3 December 1864 at age forty-six
Century Memorial
Professor Vincenzo Botta was a type of man welcomed and prized in any community which appreciates profound scholarship, a generous nature and pure patriotism. Originally educated for the Church in his native land, Italy, he abandoned that career at an early age, and became a professor in the University of Turin. He was an active participant in the first struggle for Italian unity. As a member of the Italian Parliament he was a colleague of Cavour, Gioberti, Rattazzi and the Italian patriots of that period; but the disastrous defeat of Charles Albert at the battle of Novara put an end for the time to the effort; and he then became an actor in the movement for educational reform, which, beginning in Piedmont, extended through the Italian peninsula. In the line of his duty he came to the United States, where he found such congenial surroundings that he adopted it as his country, and has ever since made it his home. He became thoroughly identified with its interests, was a devoted friend of the Union in the late war, and was ever found among the foremost in aiding with his pen and his purse the cause of right and progress.
He was a voluminous writer; most interesting and engaging in his personal characteristics. His home was a centre of refinement and culture, and the universal regard of his friends and acquaintances testified to his high character and attainments.
Henry E. Howland
1895 Century Association Yearbook
