Affo, Ireneus

, a native of Bussetto, a small town in the duchy of Piacenza, was appointed in 1768 by the Infant don Ferdinand to be professor of philosophy at Guastalla, where he wrote his “Historia di Guastalla,” 4 vols. 4to. It commences with the reign of Charlemagne; comprizes the three dynasties who governed that state: viz. the Torelli’s, the Gonzago’s, and the Bourbons, dukes of Parma; and finishes in 1776. On account of this work, he was appointed superintendant of the valuable library of Parma. He is a diffuse writer, as he allows in his preface, but his researches are valuable and correct. Writing under a prince so particular as the last Infant, he was obliged to suppress some things of a delicate kind. He wrote also “Historia di Parma,” printed there 2 vols. 4to, and other works respecting the antiquities and the lives of the sovereigns of these states. He left a manuscript history of Peter Louis Farnese, which the Infant would not suffer to be published. He died at the age of sixty, about the beginning of the present century. ²