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MANZONI, ALESSANDRO FRANCESCO TOMMASO...

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 627 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANZONI, ALESSANDRO See also:FRANCESCO TOMMASO See also:ANTONIO (1785-1873) , See also:Italian poet and novelist, was See also:born at See also:Milan on the 7th of See also:March 1785. See also:Don Pietro, his See also:father, then about fifty, represented an old See also:family settled near See also:Lecco, but originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina, where the memory of their violence is still perpetuated in a See also:local See also:proverb, comparing it to that of the See also:mountain torrent. The poet's maternal grandfather, Cesare See also:Beccaria, was a well-known author, and his See also:mother Giulia a woman of some See also:literary ability. Manzoni's See also:intellect was slow in maturing, and at the various colleges where his school days were passed he ranked among the dunces. At fifteen, however, he See also:developed a See also:passion for See also:poetry, and wrote two sonnets of considerable merit. On the See also:death of his father in 18o5, he joined his mother at Auteuil, and spent two years there, mixing in the literary set of the so-called " ideologues," philosophers of the 18th See also:century school, among whom he made many See also:friends, notably See also:Claude See also:Fauriel. There too he imbibed the negative creed of Voltairianism, and only after his See also:marriage, and under the See also:influence of his wife, did he See also:exchange it for that fervent Catholicism which coloured his later See also:life. In 1806-1807, while at Auteuil, he first appeared before the public as a poet, with two pieces, one entitled Urania, in the classical See also:style, of which he became later the most conspicuous adversary, the other an See also:elegy in See also:blank See also:verse, on the death of See also:Count Carlo Imbonati, from whom, through his mother, he inherited considerable See also:property, including the See also:villa of Brusuglio, thenceforward his See also:principal See also:residence. Manzoni's marriage in 18o8 to Henriette See also:Blondel, daughter of a Genevese banker, proved a most happy one, and he led for many years a retired domestic life, divided between literature and the picturesque husbandry of See also:Lombardy. His intellectual See also:energy at this, See also:period was devoted to the See also:composition of the Inni sacri, a See also:series of sacred lyrics, and a See also:treatise on See also:Catholic morality, forming a task undertaken under religious guidance, in reparation for his See also:early See also:lapse from faith. In 1818 he had to sell his paternal See also:inheritance, as his affairs had gone to ruin in the hands of a dishonest See also:agent. His characteristic generosity was shown on this occasion in his dealings with his peasants, who were heavily indebted to him.

He not only cancelled on the spot the See also:

record of all sums owing to him, but bade them keep for themselves the whole of the coming See also:maize See also:harvest. In 1819 Manzoni published his first tragedy, Il See also:Conte di See also:Carmagnola, which, boldly violating all classical conventionalisms, excited a lively controversy. It was severely criticized in the Quarterly See also:Review, in an See also:article to which See also:Goethe replied in its See also:defence, "one See also:genius," as Count de See also:Gubernatis remarks, "having divined the other." The death of See also:Napoleon in 1821 inspired Manzoni's powerful stanzas Il Cinque maggio, the most popular lyric in the Italian See also:language. The See also:political events of that See also:year, and the imprisonment of many of his friends, weighed much on Manzoni's mind, and the See also:historical studies in which he sought See also:distraction during his subsequent retirement at Brusuglio suggested his See also:great See also:work. See also:Round the See also:episode of the Innominato, historically identified with Bernardino See also:Visconti, the novel I Promessi sposi began to grow into shape, and was completed in See also:September 1822. The work when published, after revision by friends in 1825-1827, at the See also:rate of a See also:volume a year, at once raised its author to the first See also:rank of literary fame. In 1822, Manzoni published his second tragedy Adelchi, turning on the overthrow by See also:Charlemagne of the Lombard domination in See also:Italy, and containing many veiled allusions to the existing See also:Austrian See also:rule. With these See also:works Manzoni's literary career was practically closed. But he laboriously revised I Promessi sposi in the Tuscan See also:idiom, and in 184o republished it in that See also:form, with a sort of sequel, La Storia della See also:Colonna infame, of very inferior See also:interest. He also wrote a small treatise on the Italian language. The end of the poet's See also:long life was saddened by domestic sorrows. The loss of his wife in 1833 was followed by that of several of his See also:children, and of his mother.

In 1837 he married his second wife, Teresa Borri, widow of Count Stampa, whom he also survived, while of nine children born to him in his two marriages all but two preceded him to the See also:

grave. The death of his eldest son, See also:Pier See also:Luigi, on the 28th of See also:April 1873, was the final See also:blow which hastened his end; he See also:fell See also:ill immediately, and died of cerebral See also:meningitis, on the 22nd of May. His See also:country mourned him with almost royal pomp, and his remains, after lying in See also:state for some days, were followed to the See also:cemetery of Milan by a vast cortege, including the royal princes and all the great See also:officers of state. But his noblest See also:monument was See also:Verdi's See also:Requiem, specially written to See also:honour his memory. See also:Biographical sketches of Manzoni have been published by Cesare See also:Cantu (1885), Angelo de Gubernatis (1879), Arturo See also:Graf (1898). Some of his letters have been published by Giovanni See also:Sforza (1882).

End of Article: MANZONI, ALESSANDRO FRANCESCO TOMMASO ANTONIO (1785-1873)

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