Writer used his poetry as a vehicle for his political views
 |
Giosuè Carducci in a photograph
taken in about 1870
|
Christened Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci, he lived
with his parents in the small village of Valdicastello in the province of
Lucca.
His father, a doctor, was an advocate of the unification of
Italy and was involved with the Carbonari, a network of secret revolutionary
groups. Because of his politics, the family was forced to move several times
during Carducci’s childhood, eventually settling in Florence.
During his time in college, Carducci became fascinated with
the restrained style of Greek and Roman literature and his work as an adult
often used the classical meters of such Latin poets as Horace and Virgil. He
published his first collection of poems, Rime, in 1857.
He married Elvira Menicucci in 1859 and they had four
children.
 |
| Carducci in around 1900 |
Carducci taught Greek at a high school in Pistoia and was
then appointed as an Italian professor at the University of Bologna.
Carducci was a popular lecturer and a fierce critic of
literature and society. He was an atheist, whose political views were
vehemently hostile to Christianity generally and the Catholic Church in
particular.
These opinions were voiced in a deliberately blasphemous and
provocative poem, Inno a Satana - Hymn to Satan. This poem was published in
Bologna’s radical newspaper, Il Popolo, at a time when feelings against the
Vatican were running high and the public were pressing for an end to the
Vatican’s domination over the papal states.
In 1890 Carducci met Annie Vivanti, a writer and poet with
whom he had a love affair.
His greatest works have been judged to be his collections of
poems, Rime Nuove (New Rhymes) and Odi Barbare (Barbarian Odes).
 |
| A bust of Carducci stands proud in Castagneto Carducci |
Carducci received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906 and
was also made a Senator of Italy.
In the words of the citation, the award was made to Carducci
"not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but
above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical
force which characterize his poetic masterpieces"
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded subsequently to five
other Italians - Grazia Deledda, Luigi Pirandello, Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio
Montale and Dario Fo.
During his life, Carducci wrote 20 volumes of literary
criticism, biographies, speeches and essays.
He died in 1907 at the age of 71 in Casa Carducci, his home
in Bologna and was buried in the Certosa di Bologna monumental cemetery. His achievement is commemorated with busts and statues in public places in several Italian towns, including Castagneto Carducci, a hill town in the province of Livorno where he spent some years as a child.
 |
| Marina di Pietrasanta's beach is considered to be in among the best in Italy |
Travel tip:
Valdicastello, where Carducci was born, is part of
Pietrasanta, a small town in the province of Lucca in the north-west corner of
Tuscany. The town has Roman origins and part of the Roman wall still exists.
The town is three kilometres (two miles) inland from the coastal resort of Marina di
Pietrasanta. The Marina, with its golden sand, is considered to have one of the
best beaches in Italy.
 |
| The Casa Carducci in Bologna houses the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento |
Travel tip:
Casa Carducci, where the poet lived until his death in 1907,
is a 16th century villa in Piazza Giosuè Carducci in Bologna. The ground floor
now houses the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento, which tells the story of the
unification of Italy from a cultural, social and economic perspective. Visitors
can also see Carducci’s bedroom, with the small granite washbasin he used, and
the family dining room, which has a large clock with the hands stopped at the
exact moment of the poet’s death. In his office there is a framed fragment of a
tunic belonging to Petrarch and an armchair, where Garibaldi is said to have
sat while he was recovering from an injury. The library contains about 40,000
books, pamphlets and documents, meticulously catalogued by Carducci himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment