Ugo Foscolo

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Ugo Foscolo, originally Niccolò Foscolo, was born on February 6, 1778, on the Greek island of Zacynthus, which was then part of the Venetian Republic (now Zákinthos, Greece). He died on September 10, 1827, at Turnham Green, a suburb of London, England. Foscolo's life's work is renowned for its depiction of the feelings and emotions of many Italians during the tumultuous period of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule in Italy. His literary works are considered among the masterpieces of Italian literature. Foscolo was born to a Greek mother and a Venetian father. He received his education at Spalato (now Split, Croatia) and Padua in Italy. Foscolo's family moved to Venice around 1793, where he became part of the city's literary circles. In 1797, the performance of his tragedy "Tieste" ("Thyestes") catapulted him to fame. Foscolo initially expressed his enthusiasm for Napoleon through an ode titled "A Bonaparte liberatore" (1797; "To Bonaparte the Liberator"). However, this admiration quickly turned to disillusionment when Napoleon ceded Venetia to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). Foscolo's novel "Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis" (1802; "The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis," 1970) contains a scathing denunciation of this transaction and showcases his discontent with Italy's social and political circumstances. Some critics consider this work the first modern Italian novel. When the Austrians and Russians invaded Italy in 1799, Foscolo joined the French side alongside other Italian patriots. Following the defense of Genoa in 1800, he was appointed captain of the Italian division of the French army. He held various commissions in Milan, Bologna, and Florence, where he pursued numerous romantic affairs. Foscolo's military service eventually took him to France (1804-06), during which time he translated classical works and Laurence Sterne's "Sentimental Journey" into Italian and penned odes and sonnets. In 1807, Foscolo returned to Milan and solidified his literary reputation with the patriotic poem "Dei sepolcri" (Eng. trans., "Of the Sepulchres," c. 1820), a blank verse protest against Napoleon's decree prohibiting tomb inscriptions. Foscolo's work "Dei sepolcri" won him the chair of Italian rhetoric at the University of Pavia in 1808. However, when Napoleon abolished the chair the following year, Foscolo moved on to Milan. The satirical references to Napoleon in his tragedy "Aiace" (first performed 1811; "Ajax") again sparked suspicion against him. In 1812, he relocated to Florence, where he penned another tragedy, "Ricciarda," and most of his acclaimed unfinished poem, "Le grazie" (published in fragments 1803 and 1818, in full 1822; "The Graces"). Foscolo returned to Milan in 1813. With Napoleon's downfall the following year, the Austrians regained control over Italy, and Foscolo refused to take an oath of allegiance. He fled first to Switzerland and then in 1816 to England, where he became popular for a time due to his status as an Italian patriot. Foscolo supported himself through teaching and writing commentaries on Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch for The Edinburgh Review and The Quarterly Review. Despite being a celebrated figure in English society, Foscolo died in poverty. In 1871, with great national ceremony, his remains were transferred from England to the church of Santa Croce in Florence, where they were interred.