Bernardo Tasso - poet

Writer fathered a famous Renaissance literary figure

Bernardo Tasso was for a time resident
poet at the Ducal Palace in Urbino

Bernardo Tasso, a prolific poet who served as a courtier to various Italian noblemen, died on this day in 1569 in Ostiglia, which was then part of the Duchy of Mantua.

He was famous for being the father of Torquato Tasso, who went on to become one of Italy’s greatest Renaissance poets.

Bernardo, who was born in Bergamo in 1493, married Porzia de Rossi while he was in the service of the Prince of Salerno.  Torquato was born in Sorrento in 1544 in a building that is now part of the Hotel Tramontano in the centre of the resort.

When Torquato was a child, the Prince of Salerno fell out of favour with the Spanish government of Naples and he was outlawed. His employee, Bernardo, and his son, Torquato, shared in his punishment and were declared rebels of the state and they both had to leave Sorrento.

Bernardo went into the service of Duke Guidobaldo II at his court in Urbino and Torquato went with him and was educated there. While his father was resident poet at the Ducal Palace in Urbino, Torquato studied alongside Francesco Maria della Rovere, the heir to the Duke. 

It was in Urbino that Bernardo started writing his major work, L’Amadiji, an epic poem of 100 cantos, which was later completed by Torquato.

While at the court in Urbino, he would read cantos of his epic poem to the Duchess and her ladies, and he would also discuss the merits of Homer, Virgil, Trissino, and Ariosto with the Duke’s librarians and secretaries.

Bernardo went on to serve the Duke of Mantua, Guglielmo Gonzaga, who appointed him Governor of Ostiglia, the place where he died in 1569.

During his life, Bernardo Tasso wrote many psalms, sonnets and odes in the manner of Horace. He published his lyric poems, Amori, in Venice in 1555. His main work, L’Amadiji, was inspired by the Spanish chivalric romance, Amadis de Gaula. Torquato later completed L’Amadiji and published the full work under the title of Floridante in 1587.

Torquato Tasso is seen as
one of Italy's greatest poets

Torquato Tasso has come to be regarded as the greatest Italian poet of the Renaissance. His most famous work was his epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) in which he gives an imaginative version of the battles between Christians and Muslims at the end of the first crusade during the siege of Jerusalem. 

His poetry was later to prove inspirational for other writers who followed him, in particular Edmund Spencer and Lord Byron, who visited the places associated with him during his time in Italy.  

Torquato Tasso was to spend many years living in Ferrara at the Castle owned by the Este family, where he fell in love with a lady in waiting and wrote love sonnets to her.

But he suffered from the jealous behaviour of the other courtiers, which led to him developing a persecution mania and suspecting he was going to be poisoned. Eventually, he escaped and made his way to Sorrento to visit his sister, Cornelia, who had married there and settled in a house in the historic centre between the main street and the sea.

After some difficult years during which Tasso was confined to a madhouse by his patron, the Duke of Urbino, and later wandered from city to city without settling, he was invited to go and live in Rome by the Pope.

Torquato Tasso died in Rome in 1595, when he was just about to be crowned poet laureate by Pope Clement VIII.

Caffe del Tasso's tables in Bergamo are watched
over by the statue of Torquato Tasso

Travel tip:

Bernardo Tasso is remembered in his native city, Bergamo, where a street in the Città Bassa, the lower town, is named after the family. His son, Torquato, is also immortalised in the upper town, the Città Alta, by a large statue of him that stands in front of Palazzo della Ragione in the main square, Piazza Vecchia. Torquato Tasso spent only two periods living in his father’s native city, but he wrote about Bergamo with affection. The statue was erected almost 100 years after his death. The bar next to it subsequently changed its name to Caffè del Tasso. Dating back to at least 1476, the bar would have been known during Tasso’s life as Locanda delle Due Spade (Two Swords Inn.) In 1681 when the statue of the poet was erected, the bar’s name was changed to Al Torquato Tasso Caffè e Bottiglieria (Torquato Tasso Café and Wine Shop). Piazza Vecchia, which was remodelled during the Renaissance and has been hailed by architects and writers as the most beautiful square in Italy, is surrounded by old palaces and has a 12th century bell tower that still strikes 100 times at ten pm each night, in recognition of the ancient curfew. The bell would be sounded to warn residents that the gates in the Città Alta’s Venetian walls were about to be closed for the night. 

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Torquato Tasso's sister Cornelia lived
in this house in historic Sorrento

Travel tip:

Although Bernardo and Torquato Tasso travelled all over Italy during their lives, Sorrento’s main square has been named after them. Piazza Tasso is right at the hub of Sorrento, in the middle of the main shopping street, Corso Italia, and looks out over Marina Piccola, Sorrento’s port. The house where Bernardo was living when Torquato Tasso was born in 1544, is a few streets away from Piazza Tasso in Via Vittorio Veneto and now forms part of the Imperial Hotel Tramontano. It was at this hotel that the beautiful song Torna a Surriento was composed by Ernesto De Curtis while he was sitting on the terrace. Sorrento is one of southern Italy’s most popular holiday destinations, a beautiful cliff-top town overlooking the Bay of Naples with wonderful views of the volcano Vesuvius and the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida in the distance.  Known by Italians as La Gentile, Sorrento has a mild climate and excellent tourist amenities. The historic centre has a wealth of elegant architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with some Greek, Roman and medieval structures still preserved as a reminder of historical roots that go back to 600BC.

 

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More reading:

The troubled life of Torquato Tasso

Bernardo Accolti, love poet of the late Renaissance

Salvatore Quasimodo, the civil engineer who was a Nobel Prize winning-poet 

Also on this day:

1533: The birth of philosopher Giacomo Zabarella

1568: The birth of poet and philosopher Tommaso Campanella

1901: The birth of politician Mario Scelba

1908: The birth of entrepreneur Renzo Rivolta

1970: The birth of Paralympian Francesca Porcellato

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Luigi Pulci - Renaissance poet

Luigi Pulci wrote his epic poem for
the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent

Medici favourite behind milestone work

Luigi Pulci, a major Italian poet of the early Renaissance best known for his epic comic poem, Morgante, was born in Florence on this day in 1432.

Morgante, which featured a real-life Frankish military leader under Emperor Charlemagne who became legendary after dying heroically in battle, was significant in that it could be said to have created the mock-heroic epic genre in Western literature.

Luigi was the youngest son among nine children of Jacopo di Francesco Pulci, an impoverished nobleman. After a difficult childhood caused by his family's poverty, he was introduced to the Medici family in 1461 and came under the patronage of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. The de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, Lorenzo became the most powerful supporter of Renaissance culture.

Despite his family’s straitened circumstances, Pulci received a full classical education, which equipped him to navigate the elite literary and political circles of 15th-century Tuscany.

He formed a close personal friendship with Lorenzo when the latter was still a teenager and who found Pulci’s wit and storytelling a welcome distraction from study.

Pulci became a favourite with Lorenzo’s wider circle due to his sharp wit, satirical humour, and talent for popular poetry. It was Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Lorenzo’s mother, who actively encouraged Pulci to write a poem about Orlando.

The eighth-century paladin had entered popular culture in Italy thanks to The Song of Roland, an 11th-century French epic poem based on his heroic death fighting the Spanish at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass on behalf of Charlemagne in 778. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. 

Pulci’s version features a giant, called Morgante, who becomes Orlando's loyal follower after the knight stops him from attacking the monastery of Chiaromonte and converts him to Christianity. 

The front cover page of a 1574
edition of the popular Morgante

It differed from the serious courtly epics of tradition in that Pulci filled his work with slapstick humour, popular Tuscan slang, and theological parody. The poem features the gluttonous Margutte, a comic character who proudly boasts of his many sins and eventually dies in a fit of laughter.

Morgante himself is killed by a bite from a crab. The poem ends with an account of Orlando's defeat and death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

At Tornabuoni’s request, the poem was read aloud in the Medici court as it progressed. The first edition containing 23 cantos appeared around 1478, and the final 28-canto version was published in 1483.

As a result of its success and popularity, Pulci’s chosen ottava rima rhyming stanza form became the standard for epic poems. Orlando featured in later epic Renaissance poems such as Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (1495) and Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pulci’s position in the Medici court eventually deteriorated. His irreverent attitude toward religion and his fascination with the occult drew sharp criticism from prominent court humanists, most notably Marsilio Ficino and Matteo Franco.

Pulci engaged in fierce, bitter poetic public feuds with Franco, a priest who accused him of dabbling in black magic. They traded insults in a series of sonnets.

Eventually, his coarse, popular style fell out of favour, and he grew increasingly isolated. Politically sidelined and in need of money - he had some business interests that saddled him with large debts - he left Florence some time around 1470 and entered the service of Robert Sanseverino, a powerful condottiero. 

A plaque remembering Luigi Pulci in
the area of Padua where he was buried

Pulci travelled extensively on missions for Sanseverino throughout northern Italy. During a journey to Venice, he became ill and died in Padua in November 1484. 

Before that, in 1478, following the assassination of Lorenzo's brother Giuliano during the Pazzi Conspiracy, amid a climate of anti-clericalism in Florence, Pulci wrote a poem in which he fulminated against the Rome of Pope Sixtus IV, dedicating it to Lucrezia Tornabuoni.

It reinforced the church’s view of Pulci as a heretic, as a result of which after his death in Padua, the local clergy refused to give him his last rites and denied him burial in consecrated ground. His body instead was buried in an unmarked grave just outside the churchyard wall of the Chiesa di San Tommaso Apostolo in Padua, which was demolished in the early 20th century. 

There is a plaque commemorating the life of Luigi Pulci on a wall in Via San Tomaso, close to where the church stood.

The church's hostility toward Pulci did not end there. In 1497, a decade after his death, the radical friar Girolamo Savonarola, who led the infamous Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence, deemed Pulci’s comedic epic morally corrupt and dangerous.

Savonarola campaigned against what he considered to be the artistic and social excesses of the Renaissance, preaching with fanatical passion against any material possession that might tempt the owner towards sin. Copies of Morgante were seized and thrown into the public fires.

Nonetheless, Pulci’s legacy endured through his influence on the evolution of the European epic after his blending of high literary culture with low-brow street comedy broke rigid medieval traditions. By elevating the vernacular Tuscan dialect, he helped shape the future of Italian literature. 

Centuries later, Lord Byron, the British romantic poet and adventurer, translated portions of Morgante, cementing Pulci's reputation as a pioneer of the romantic-comic narrative style.

The beautiful Boboli Gardens were a Medici
addition to their newly-acquired Palazzo Pitti

Travel tip:

The Medici family’s dominance of Florence for approximately 300 years can be seen in numerous reference points across the city. The early years of their rule brought the construction, between 1444 and 1460, of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, in present-day Via Camillo Cavour, which was the family’s original power base, commissioned by Cosimo il Vecchio and home to Lorenzo il Magnifico.  The same period saw Medici funding of improvements to the Basilica di San Lorenzo, to which Michelangelo’s New Sacristy was added from 1520, at the behest of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici (later Pope Clement VII). The rulership of Cosimo I saw the construction of the Uffizi (1560–1581), originally an administrative complex designed by Giorgio Vasari, the addition of Medici apartments to the medieval Palazzo Vecchio, and the construction in 1565 of the Vasari Corridor, the 750m elevated corridor built to facilitate Cosimo I’s safe passage between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Pitti, which had become the ceremonial residence of the Medici family and the seat of the Grand Duchy of Florence in around 1550. The Palazzo Pitti was purchased by Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I, in 1549, having previously been the home of Luca Pitti, a Florentine banker. The Boboli gardens were a Medici addition. 

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The Basilica di Sant'Antonio, one of Padua's
main attractions, was built in the 13th century

Travel tip:

Many of the major sights that attract visitors to Padua had already been built when Luigi Pulci died there in 1484. For example, the Palazzo della Ragione, which still dominates Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, was built in 1218 and enlarged between 1306 and 1309, while the Scrovegni Chapel, one of the best preserved medieval chapels in Italy and decorated with stunning frescoes by Giotto, was built between 1300–1303. The nearby Church of the Eremitani, built for the hermit friars of Saint Augustine and dedicated to the saints Philip and James, has stood since the 13th century, as has the Basilica di Sant’Antonio, with its eight domes. The Baptistery adjoining the Duomo would have been as it is today. The city’s walls, which existed in Pulci’s time, are not fully intact, although sections remain, along with the Porta Altinate and Porta Molino gates. The city already had a university, which was established in 1222 and is one of the oldest in the world, second in Italy only to the University of Bologna . The main university building, Palazzo del Bò in Via VIII Febbraio in the centre of Padua, used to house the medical faculty. The history of Padua itself goes back much further: it is believed to be one of the oldest cities in northern Italy, founded in about 1183 BC by the Trojan prince, Antenor. 

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More reading:

Ludovico Ariosto, the poet credited with coining the term humanism and author of the epic poem, Orlando furioso

How Tuscan writer Francesco Berni’s satirical verses poked fun at two Popes

The bucket that inspired Alessandro Tassoni’s mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of landscape painter Francesco Zuccarelli

1922: The birth of economic historian and writer Carlo Cipolla

1944: The birth of fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré

Ferragosto - Italy’s great summer escape

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Giovanni Capurro - poet and songwriter

Neapolitan who wrote the words to ‘O sole mio

Giovanni Capurro wrote many songs
but made little money from them

Giovanni Capurro, a poet and songwriter best known for writing the lyric of the classic Neapolitan song ‘O sole mio, was born in Naples on this day in 1859. 

The son of a professor of languages, Capurro was a cultured man who would in time be considered one of the 19th century’s finest Italian poets, yet was never well rewarded for his art. He spent much of his working life as a journalist and died poor.

Capurro grew up in the Montecalvario district of Naples, an area of the city centre that climbs up the hill of San Martino to the west of Via Toledo. Although his first love was writing, and poetry in particular, he was also a talented musician, graduating from the Naples Conservatory after studying the flute. He was also blessed with a good singing voice.

He wrote poetry in both Italian and Neapolitan dialect, both in the form of song lyrics and volumes of poetry. The celebrated actor, Raffaele Viviani, made his first appearance on the stage of an established theatre - the Teatro Perella in Basso Porto - at the age of four, in a sketch written by Capurro entitled Scugnizzo - The Street Urchin.

Capurro published more than 30 lyrics that were put to music, none more famous than ‘O sole mio, which he wrote in 1898, asking Eduardo di Capua, a Neapolitan songwriter and composer, to set it to music. Di Capua, for many credited with writing the melody alone, was later declared only to be the co-composer, after a court in Turin was satisfied that the melody had been an adaptation of one di Capua had bought from another musician, Alfredo Mazzucchi.

The song was presented at the famous Piedigrotta Festival, the music competition in the Chiaia district of Naples that was the launching pad for many famous Neapolitan songs.

The cover of the first edition of the 
sheet music of Capurro's 'O sole mio

It had already been well received when played around Naples yet the judges for the competition decided it was worth only second place behind a song called Napule Bello. However, there was such a public outcry that the decision was reversed.

Capurro’s other songs included Carduccianelle, N'atu munasterio, Napulitanata, Ammore che gira, Totonno 'e Quagliarelle, 'O scugnizzo, 'O guaglione d' 'o speziale, Lily Kangy, Chitarra mia and 'A chiantosa.

Yet he received little money for any of them. He sold the rights to ‘O sole mio, to a publishing house for a one-time fee. 

Had he any notion of how famous it would become - it has featured in the repertoire of such illustrious tenors as Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, Andrea Bocelli and Beniamino Gigli - he would surely have negotiated a royalties deal.

As it was, he did not write with the aim of making money, merely to indulge his own fascination with the art. Early in his writing career, his poem Carduccianelle adapted to Neapolitan the evocations of Classical world employed by Nobel Prize-winning poet Giosuè Carducci a few years earlier in his Odi Barbare. Neapolitan readers regarded it more as a curiosity than as a book of true poetry.

Capurri delighted in spending his evenings in salons, where he would sing, play the piano and amuse audiences with his imitations of famous performers, but made his living as a journalist.

Beginning with the socialist periodical La Montagna, he then wrote for the Naples political newspaper Don Marzio, before joining the staff of the daily newspaper, Roma, in 1896, working initially as a reporter before becoming a theatre critic.

Married with three children, Capurro died in Naples in 1920 at the age of 61.

The upper parts of Montecalvario offer some
stunning views over the city of Naples

Travel tip:

The Montecalvario neighbourhood is the area of central Naples that includes the northern part of the Quartieri Spagnoli - the Spanish Quarter - the network of teeming streets that was built in the 16th century to house Spanish soldiers after the armies of Ferdinand II of Aragon had defeated the French to take control of the city. The main part of Montecalvario is to the west of Via Toledo, one of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, which follows a long, straight course from Piazza Dante, through Piazza Carità before ending at Piazza Trieste e Trento, near Piazza del Plebiscito. The bustling Mercato Pignasecca offers a chance to experience shopping with the locals, while a climb up to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the street which borders the upper part of the neighbourhood, is worth it to find a vantage point for spectacular views over the city.

The church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, which
is the origin of the annual Festa della Madonna

Travel tip:

Piedigrotta is an area that forms part of ​​the Chiaia district of Naples, close to the port at Mergellina. It takes its name from its location at the foot of a tunnel - "ai pedi grotta" - built into the  Posillipo hill in Roman times. It is best known for its annual Festa della Madonna di Piedigrotta, an occasion of fireworks and parades that has been staged every September since the 1800s. For many years, the celebrations included an annual song competition, the Neapolitan Song Festival, which showcased the city’s tradition of street musicians entertaining audiences with folk songs in Neapolitan dialect. It did much to popularise Neapolitan Songs as a genre, challenging the city’s most talented lyricists to excel. The competition launched in 1890 and became enormously successful, but was suspended in the 1960s because of repeated public order incidents as crowds got out of control. There have been a number of attempts in recent years to revive the contest but it has yet to be reinstated as an annual event.

Also on this day:

Catania celebrates the Feast of Saint Agatha

1578: The death of painter Giovanni Battista Moroni

1887: Verdi’s Otello premieres in Milan

1932: The birth of football coach Cesare Maldini

1960: Movie La dolce vita shown in public for first time

1964: The birth of footballer and coach Carolina Morace

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Alessandro Tassoni – poet

Writer famed for legendary bucket in a belfry

Alessandro Tassoni was a political
commentator and literary critic

The writer Alessandro Tassoni, who became famous for a poem about an historic battle which included a story about a stolen bucket, was born on this day in 1565 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.

Tassoni’s bucket, which inspired his mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita (The Rape of the Bucket), is still on public display to this day in the belfry of Modena Cathedral.  

According to some critics, his poem was one of the earliest - and best - Italian poems of its type, and it became very popular in Italy and abroad. 

Tassoni, who also wrote about politics and was a literary critic, was born into a noble family. He lost both of his parents at an early age and was brought up by his grandfather. He first saw the bucket in Modena Cathedral when he was taken there by his grandfather.

At the age of 13, he was taught Latin and Greek and he went on to study philosophy, law, and rhetoric at the universities of Bologna, Pisa, and Ferrara.  

In 1597 he entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna and went with him to Spain as his first secretary. After his return to Italy, Tassoni went to live in Rome.

He wrote a booklet, le Filippiche, which he published in 1612 anonymously because it attacked the Spanish domination of certain parts of Italy and he was afraid of reprisals. 

But the work became famous enough to attract the attention of Charles Emanuel I Duke of Savoy and in 1618 he hired Tassoni to work for him in Turin and gave him the title of first secretary.

The bucket of Tassoni's famous epic poem today
hangs in the belfry of the Torre della Ghirlandina

Tassoni went to work for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in 1626 and then he served under Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena. 

The poet died in 1635 in his home town of Modena and a statue of him was later erected in front of the city’s Ghirlandina, the cathedral’s bell tower.

Tassoni is also remembered for his political writing and his works of literary criticism, such as Considerazioni sopra le rime del Petrarca, and Pensieri diversi, an encyclopaedia covering scientific, literary, historical, and philosophical topics, but he is mainly remembered for his satirical poem about the bucket.

La secchia rapita was written by Tassoni between 1614 and 1615 and it was first published in Paris. It couldn’t be published in Italy until Tassoni had modified it to make it comply with the censorship rules imposed by the Catholic Church. 

Tassoni paid to have the first Italian edition bearing his own name published, and the final edition was published in 1630. 

The story related by the poem was loosely based on a war fought between Modena and Bologna in 1325. Most of the events in the poem are fictional, and it refers to a battle that had, in reality, been fought 100 years before the war. But the poem relates what  purports to be an episode when the soldiers from Modena stole a bucket from their Bolognese enemies.

This exploit was not reported by historians from that period. However, a bucket that is claimed to have been the one stolen has been on display in the Torre della Ghirlandina in Modena from Tassoni’s time up to the present day.

In the poem, the theft of the bucket results in a war, in which the Olympian Gods take part, in the tradition of Homer’s Iliad. The war is only resolved when the Pope intervenes to bring it to an end.

The poem references contemporary events and people who were alive at the same time as the author, and its primary purpose was to entertain readers.

For the last 20 years, Tassoni has been remembered in Modena when the city gives out the annual Alessandro Tassoni Literary Award.

The Ducal Palace in Modena, designed by Luigi
Bartolomeo Avanzini, dates back to 1635

Travel tip:

Modena is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, known for its car industry, because Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well-known for its balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena. One of the main sights in Modena is the huge, Baroque Ducal Palace, begun by Francesco I on the site of a former castle in 1635. His architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. In the Galleria Estense, on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei in Modena, is a one-metre high bust of Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Tassoni's statue

Travel tip:

The Cathedral of Modena and its bell tower, Torre della Ghirlandina, are both UNESCO World heritage sites. The tower stands more than 89 metres (292ft) tall and can be seen outside the city from all directions. Inside, there is the Sala della Secchia room, which has 15th century frescoes, and the tower also houses a copy of the oaken bucket, from the War of the Bucket referred to by Tassoni in his poem, which was fought between Modena and Bologna in 1325. The tower was built in 1179, with five floors, and was initially called Torre di San Geminiano. It was renamed after the top of the tower was decorated with two ghirlande - marble railings - during a later renovation. The statue of Alessandro Tassoni, which stands at the foot of the tower, was sculpted by Antonio Cavazza and erected in 1860.

Also on this day:

1871: The birth of soldier and politician Pietro Badoglio

1924: The birth of actor Marcello Mastroianni

1943: The death of 13-year-old partisan Filippo Illuminato

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Eugenio Montale - poet and translator

Influential writer was fourth Italian to be awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Eugenio Montale became a
Nobel Prize winner in 1975

Eugenio Montale, who became one of the most influential Italian writers of the 20th century and was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975, died on this day in 1981 in Milan at the age of 84.

Montale's most famous work is often considered to be his first, a collection of poems he published in 1925 under the title Ossi di seppia - Cuttlefish Bones. These poems established his use of stark imagery, his introspective tone and his fascination with themes such as desolation, alienation and mortality, and the search for elusive meaning in a fragmented world.

Later collections such as Le occasioni (1939) - The Occasions - and La bufera e altro (1956) - The Storm and Other Things - reinforced his reputation as one of Italian literature’s 20th century greats.

Montale was born in 1896 in a building overlooking the botanical gardens of the University of Genoa, a short distance from the city’s Piazza Principe railway station. His father, Domenico, was the co-owner of a chemical products company.

As a young man, Montale was dogged by ill health but obtained a qualification in accountancy and for eight years had ambitions to be an opera singer under the tuition of the baritone, Ernesto Sivori. He never performed in public and after Sivori died in 1923 he did not pursue his studies, focussing more and more on literature, taking it upon himself to learn about Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and D'Annunzio in particular.

Eugenio Montale's first volume of poetry
established him as a great literary talent

Despite his frail health, he was passed fit for military service when Italy entered World War One and experienced frontline fighting in the area around Vallarsa and Rovereto. By the time he was discharged in 1920, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant.

Politically, he opposed Fascism to the extent of signing Benedetto Croce’s Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, yet after the fall of Mussolini he rejected both the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communists and, apart from a brief membership of the centre-left Partito d'Azione, steered clear of any involvement in politics.

He began publishing poetry in the 1920s, initially influenced by the works of poets such as Ezra Pound and TS Eliot, but also drawing on the inspiration he took from family holidays on the rugged Ligurian coast around the Cinque Terre and Rapallo. Montale often uses imagery drawn from the sea and the Mediterranean landscape to convey feelings of isolation and the fragility of existence.

In 1927, he moved to Florence, where he worked as a journalist and literary critic and mixed in the city's intellectual and artistic circles, attending literary gatherings of the café Le Giubbe Rosse, meeting Carlo Emilio Gadda, Tommaso Landolfi and Elio Vittorini among others.  He worked as an editor for the publisher Bemporad and later became the director of the Gabinetto Vieusseux Library, although he lost that position in 1938 because of his anti-Fascist views. 

From 1948 until his death, Montale lived in Milan. He became literary editor of the Corriere della Sera, dealing in particular with the Teatro alla Scala, and music critic for the Corriere d'informazione.

Montale was buried alongside his wife,
Drusilla, at cemetery outside Florence

Montale’s language skills enabled him to translate works by authors such as William Blake and Wallace Stevens into Italian, introducing these writers to a wider Italian audience. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975 as a recognition of his contributions to Italian poetry, joining Giosuè Carducci  (1904), Grazia Deledda (1926) and Luigi Pirandello (1934) as winners of the prestigious award. They would be followed by Dario Fo in 1997 and, posthumously, by Elsa Morante. Montale had earlier been made a senator for life.

In 1962, in Montereggi, near Fiesole, he had married Drusilla Tanzi, with whom he had been living since 1939. Sadly, after a fall that left her with a fractured femur, she died in October 1964 at the age of 77. He would reflect poignantly on her death in his 1966 collection, Xenia, written in a more personal style. 

In failing health, Montale himself died in Milan’s San Pio X clinic in 1981 a month before his 85th birthday.  A state funeral was held in Milan Cathedral and he was buried in the cemetery next to the church of San Felice a Ema, a suburb on the southern outskirts of Florence, next to his wife Drusilla. 

His archive is preserved at the University of Pavia, with which Montale had a long association and where his daughter, Bianca, was a professor.

The pretty fishing village of Boccadesse is only 
a short distance from the historic centre of Genoa

Travel tip:

The port city of Genoa (Genova), where Eugenio Montale was born, is the capital of the Liguria region. It has a rich blend of mediaeval history, Renaissance architecture, and a vibrant modern culture. Its strategic location has made it a centre of trade and commerce for centuries, with considerable wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks, but also boasts many fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Doge's Palace, the 16th century Royal Palace and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral are just three examples.  The area around the restored harbour area offers a maze of fascinating alleys and squares, enhanced recently by the work of Genoa architect Renzo Piano, and a landmark aquarium, the largest in Italy, which showcases a diverse array of marine life, from sharks and dolphins to jellyfish and seahorses. The picturesque fishing village of Boccadasse, just outside the historic centre, boasts pastel-coloured houses, a charming harbour, and authentic seafood restaurants.

Manarola, where houses cling to rugged cliffs, is
one of the five villages of the Cinque Terre

Travel tip:

The Cinque Terre, where Montale spent family holidays as a child, is a breathtaking part of the Italian Riviera renowned for its picturesque villages perched on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is made up of five villages - Riomaggiore, known for its narrow alleys, charming shops, and stunning views; Manarola, which has a picturesque harbour and colourful houses clinging to the cliff; Vernazza, which has mediaeval castle and a sandy beach; Corniglia, which can be reached only by a steep staircase or a shuttle bus but offers stunning views of the surrounding coastline; and Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five, which has a sandy beach and a historic centre.  The Cinque Terre National Park offers a network of hiking trails that connect the five villages, while boat tours offer the chance to explore the coastline from a different perspective. The Cinque Terre is known for Sciacchetrà, a sweet dessert wine made from dried grapes.

Also on this day:

1492: The birth of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino

1937: The birth of actress Daniela Rocca

1943: Nazis paratroopers free Mussolini from imprisonment at mountain ski resort

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Vincenzo da Filicaja – poet

Patriotic writer was inspired by victory against the Turks

Da Filicaja earned comparisons
with the great poet Petrarch

Vincenzo da Filicaja, a writer and a politician whose poetry has been compared with that of the great Italian poet Petrarch, died on this day in 1707 in Florence.

Da Filicaja’s six celebrated odes inspired by a famous battle victory led to scholars placing him on a level with some of the greatest Italian poets.

He was also a respected politician and was named governor of Volterra and Pisa by Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who later appointed him to serve in the Tuscan Senate.

Born into an aristocratic family in Florence in 1642, Da Filicaja was educated by Jesuits before going to Pisa University to study law. In Pisa, he was inspired by the historical associations he saw that were linked with the former glory of the republic of Pisa.

The banners and emblems of the Order of St Stephen, which had its seat in Pisa, had great significance for the young student, who knew that the navy of this military order, created by Cosimo I de’ Medici, formed the main defence of his country and its commerce against Turkish, Algerian and Tunisian corsairs.

After returning to Florence, Da Filicaja married Anna Capponi in 1673, the daughter of a senator and marquis, and he went to live in the Tuscan countryside, where his main interest was writing Italian and Latin poetry.

Da Filicaja earned comparisons
with the great poet Petrarch

He became a member of the Accademia della Crusca, a society for scholars of Italian linguistics and philology, which is now the oldest linguistic academy in the world.

Other scholars and writers he met there, such as the poet Francesco Redi, helped him to gain access to Medici court patronage.

Da Filicaja’s imagination was fired by the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks in 1683 and he composed six odes to celebrate the victory.  Redi showed Da Filicaja’s verses to his own royal patron and sent them to the foreign princes whose noble deeds were praised in them. The quality of Da Filicaja’s odes celebrating the victory of John III Sobieski in the Battle of Vienna is what made many scholars consider him to be on a level with some of the greatest Italian poets.

Christina, the ex Queen of Sweden, contacted Da Filicaja from her exile in Rome, offering to pay for the education of his two sons and to keep the generous gesture a secret. And in 1691, Da Filicaja became a member of the Academy of Arcadia, a literary academy founded in Rome.

Cosimo III made the poet the commissioner of official balloting and governor of Volterra, where Da Filicaja tried to improve public morality. He was also made governor of Pisa in 1700 and he became so popular that when he left office the inhabitants of both cities petitioned to have him brought back.

Cosimo III made him a Senator in Florence, where he spent the last years of his life. After he died, at the age of 64, he was buried in the family vault of the Church of San Pietro in Florence and a monument was erected in his memory in the Basilica di Santa Croce in the city by his only surviving son, Scipione Filicaja.

The Palazzo della Carovana, which was built
by Vasari for the Knights of St Stephen

Travel tip:

Pisa’s most popular tourist attraction by a long way is the Campo dei Miracoli, site of the famous Leaning Tower, which features a beautiful Romanesque cathedral and an equally impressive baptistry. For many visitors, the Campo dei Miracoli is all they come to see, yet there is much more to Pisa than the Leaning Tower. The University of Pisa remains one of the most prestigious in Italy, while the student population ensures a vibrant cafe and bar scene. There is also much to see in the way of Romanesque buildings, Gothic churches and Renaissance piazzas. Interesting churches include Santa Maria della Spina, which sits next to the Arno river, while Piazza dei Cavalieri is notable for the Palazzo della Carovana, built by Giorgio Vasari in 1564 as the headquarters for the Knights of St Stephen.

The magnificent facade of the Basilica di
Santa Croce, a Florence highlight

Travel tip:

The Basilica of Santa Croce, consecrated in 1442, is the main Franciscan church in Florence and the burial place among others of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Ugo Foscolo, the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, the composer Gioachino Rossini and the nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi.  It houses works by some of the most illustrious names in the history of art, including Canova, Cimabue, Donatello, Giotto and Vasari. The construction of the current church, to replace an older building on what was once marshland outside the city wall, began in 1294, paid for by some of the city's wealthiest families. It is the largest Franciscan church in the world.  The floorplan is an Egyptian or Tau cross - a symbol of St Francis - 115 metres in length with a nave and two aisles separated by lines of octagonal columns, with 16 chapels. It stands proudly over the Piazza Santa Croce, one of the most famous and beautiful squares in the city.

Also on this day:

1501: The birth of doctor and mathematician Girolamo Cardano

1934: The birth of Princess Maria-Pia of Bourbon-Parma

1954: The birth of footballer Marco Tardelli

1955: The birth of businessman Ricardo Illy

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Trilussa - poet and journalist

Writer used humour and irony in social commentary

Trilussa became known as 
"the people's poet"

The Roman poet who went under the name Trilussa was born on this day in 1871.

The writer, best known for his works in Romanesco dialect, was actually christened Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano Salustri. His pseudonym was an anagram of his last name.

He was inspired to take up poetry by his admiration for Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, who satirised life in 19th century Rome in his sonnets, which were also written in Roman dialect. 

Born in a house in Via del Babuino, near the Spanish Steps, Carlo was the son of a waiter originally from Albano Laziale in the Castelli Romani area around Lago Albano south of Rome. His mother, Carlotta, was a seamstress born in Bologna.

His early years were marred by tragedy. He lost both a sister and his father before he had reached four years old.  After living for a short time in Via Ripetta, close to the Tiber river, his family were offered accommodation in a palazzo in Piazza di Pietra, a square midway between the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.

The palazzo was owned by Carlo’s Godfather, the Marquis Ermenegildo del Cinque, who had been introduced to the family by Professor Filippo Chiappini, a disciple of Belli who for a while was Trilussa’s tutor.  

Carlo was never a committed student. Twice he was required to repeat a year at high school and left formal education entirely at the age of 15, against the advice of both his mother and Professor Chiappini.

The monument to Trilussa in the
square of the same name in Rome

Nonetheless, his flair for humorous, satirical poetry would serve him well. In 1887, a dialect magazine entitled Rugantino published some of his verses, which were well received by readers.

The following year, he brought together a collection of poems published in Rugantino as a book, called Stelle de Roma: Versi romaneschi (Stars of Rome: Romanesco verses), a series of about 30 madrigals written in appreciation of the most beautiful young women in the city. It sold well.

Soon, Trilussa became a well known name. His work appeared in popular newspapers such as il Mesaggero and il Resto del Carlino.

In 1891, he began a collaboration with Don Chisciotte della Mancia, a newspaper with national circulation, for whom in addition to his poetry he wrote articles commenting on national government as well as life in Rome, ultimately becoming a member of the editorial board. 

His second volume of collected verses, Quaranta sonetti romaneschi (Forty Roman Sonnets), which marked the start of a long-running relationship with the publishers, Voghera, included poems he had written for Don Chisciotte della Mancia.

Trilussa was a man of striking
appearance who dressed elegantly

Even as his fame grew and more collections of poetry were published, bringing him a good income, he rejected the idea that he should move in more intellectual circles, much preferring to spend his time chatting to locals in neighbourhood bars.  He was aware that the division between the rich and poor in Rome was huge and would mock the style in which the rich lived and treated the “working” class. This led to him becoming known as the people’s poet.

He developed a talent for drawing as well as verse. Some of his published work was accompanied by his own illustrations.

Trilussa managed to avoid running into trouble with the Fascist regime, who generally looked suspiciously at writers and artists, by declaring himself to be not anti-Fascist but non-Fascist. Although he satirised politics even in the turbulent 1920s and ‘30s, his relationship with Mussolini’s government remained relatively uneventful.

A tall man, he always dressed elegantly and lived in an apartment furnished according to his supposedly eclectic tastes, where he entertained fellow artists and writers. He was said to have led a rather hedonistic lifestyle, interspersed with periods of financial difficulty. When he died in December 1950, he had little money.

He never married, yet had a long relationship with Giselda Lombardi - better known as the silent movie actress Leda Gys - who he described as the love of his life. It was Trilussa who launched her career by introducing her to friends in the film business, only for her to meet and marry a producer.

In declining health, he was made a senator for life by President Luigi Einuadi in 1950 but died less than three weeks later. His body is buried at the Verano Cemetery in Rome.

A square in Trastevere, formerly called Piazza Ponte Sisto, was renamed Piazza Trilussa after his death. The beautiful square, surrounded by bars and restaurants, was in an area in which the poet spent much of his time. Nowadays, it is a popular spot with young Romans.

The square features a quirky monument, featuring a bust in bronze leaning over a marble fragment of a Roman ruin, created by the sculptor Lorenzo Ferri in 1954.

The Spanish steps is one of
Rome's best known sights

Travel tip:

Trilussa was born in a house not far from the Spanish Steps - known to Romans as the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, leading to the piazza and church of the same name at the top of the steps. At the bottom is the Piazza di Spagna, which gets its name from the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See which has been there since the 17th century. The square was popular with English aristocrats on the Grand Tour who stayed there while in Rome. In 1820, the English poet John Keats spent the last few months of his life in a small room overlooking the Spanish Steps and died there of consumption in February 1821, aged just 25. The house is now a museum and library dedicated to the Romantic poets.

The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere is
one of the oldest churches in Rome

Travel tip:

Although formerly a working class neighbourhood, the Trastevere district, which sits alongside the Tiber, is regarded as one of Rome's most charming areas for tourists to visit. Full of winding, cobbled streets and well preserved mediaeval houses, it is fashionable with Rome's young professional class as a place to live, with an abundance of restaurants and bars and a lively student music scene.  It is also home to one of the oldest churches in Rome in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the floor plan and wall structure of which date back to 340AD.

Also on this day:

1685: The birth of composer Domenico Scarlatti

1797: The birth of soprano Giuditta Pasta

1906: The birth of boxer Primo Carnera

1954: Trieste became part of the Italian Republic

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Gabriele Rossetti - poet and revolutionary

Academic fled to England after exile from Naples

Gabriele Rossetti became a revolutionary
after moving to Naples as a student

The poet and academic Gabriele Rossetti, who was a key figure in a revolutionary secret society in 19th century Italy known as the Carbonari, was born on this day in 1783 in the city of Vasto in Abruzzo.

A Dante scholar known for his detailed and sometimes controversial interpretations of The Divine Comedy and other works, Rossetti’s own poetry was of a patriotic nature and regularly contained commentaries on contemporary politics, often in support of the growing number of popular uprisings in the early 19th century.

He became a member of the Carbonari, an informal collective of secret revolutionary societies across Italy that was active between 1800 and 1831, promoting the creation of a liberal, unified Italy. He came into contact with them after moving to Naples to study at the city's prestigious university.

Similar to masonic lodges in that they had used secret signals so that fellow members could recognise them and even a coded language, the Carbonari were founded in Naples, where their membership included military officers, nobility and priests as well as ordinary citizens. 

A librettist at the city’s Teatro San Carlo and later curator at the Capodimonte Museum, Rossetti’s standing in Naples society made him an important figure within the group, which was the driving force behind the 1820 uprising in the city which, with the help of a mutiny among the army, forced King Ferdinand I to agree to a constitution.

The Piazza Gabriele Rossetti in his home city of
Vasto, with the monument to him in the centre

It was a short-lived affair, however. After a congress to discuss a response to the uprising, Ferdinand sought help from Austria - his in-laws included the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa - and returned to Naples with an army of 50,000 that easily crushed the force of 8,000 Neapolitans pitted against him, promptly dismissing the newly-appointed parliament and tearing up the constitution.

This so outraged Rossetti that he published a poem that amounted to a tirade against Ferdinand’s tyranny. Immediately branding him a traitor, the King issued a warrant for Rossetti's arrest and announced a death sentence. Fortunately, Rossetti managed to escape, fleeing first to Malta, where he remained in hiding for three years before an admiral of the British Royal Navy helped him travel to London.

He settled in England, supporting himself by giving Italian lessons and publishing two volumes of commentary on Dante’s La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy). 

The commentary claimed that The Divine Comedy was written in the code language of a humanistic secret society that was opposed to political and ecclesiastical tyranny. Rossetti’s interpretation is now regarded as unrealistic but at the time it helped him attain the position of professor of Italian at King’s College, London, a post he held until his eyesight began to fail in 1847.

In 1826 he had married Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, daughter of another Italian exile in England, Gaetano Polidori. Their four children - Maria Francesca, Dante Gabriel, William Michael and Christina Georgina - all grew up to be distinguished writers or artists in their own right. 

Rossetti died in London in April 1854 at the age of 71 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. The main square in Vasto was named after him, with a monument to him at its centre.

The 15th century Castello Caldoresco presides 
over the centre of the city of Vasto

Travel tip:

Vasto is not a well known destination among overseas tourists but with an elevated position overlooking the Adriatic in the south of Abruzzo it is a small city well worth a visit, offering beautiful panoramic views of the coastline in addition to a charming medieval centre, with narrow alleyways and the impressive Castello Caldoresco. Built in the early 15th century, the square castle is built around an inner courtyard with cylindrical towers in three of the four corners. The Piazza Gabriele Rossetti is behind the castle.  In addition to the attractions of the city, it is just a 15-20 minute walk down the hill to golden, sandy beach at Marina di Vasto, which while thronged by Italian families in July and August is relatively quiet outside the main Italian holiday season.

The Reggia di Capodimonte in Naples, home of
one of Italy's most important art collections

Travel tip:

The Museo di Capodimonte, where Rossetti was curator before he was forced to flee the city, is an art museum located in the Reggia di Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon royal palace a few kilometres from the centre of Naples. Housing the most important collection of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, as well as works from other Italian schools of painting and ancient Roman sculptures, it is one of the biggest museums in Italy.  The palace dates back to 1783, when it was built by King Charles VII of Naples and Sicily. Adjoining an area of woodland now known as the Real Bosco di Capodimonte, it was originally intended to be a hunting lodge but evolved as a replacement for the Reggia di Portici as the seat of Charles’s court. The King’s fabulous Farnese art collection, which he had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, became the basis for the museum’s collection.

Also on this day:

1740: The death of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, patron of music and art

1907: The birth of entrepreneur Domenico Agusta

1915: The birth of jam maker Karl Zuegg

1940: The birth of racing driver Mario Andretti

1942: The birth of footballer and coach Dino Zoff

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