Foscolo, Ugo

Foscolo, Ugo
orig. Niccolò Foscolo

born Feb. 6, 1778, Zacynthus, Venetian republic
died Sept. 10, 1827, Turnham Green, near London, Eng.

Italian poet and novelist.

His works articulated the feelings of many Italians during the turbulent epoch of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule. After Austria regained Italy in 1814, Foscolo fled first to Switzerland and then to Britain. His popular novel The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1802) bitterly denounced Napoleon's cession of Venetia to Austria. Among his poems are the patriotic "Dei sepolcri" (1807) and the acclaimed but unfinished Le grazie (1822).

* * *

▪ Italian writer
original name  Niccolò Foscolo  
born Feb. 6, [Jan. 26, Greek calendar], 1778, Zacynthus, Venetian republic [now Zákinthos, Greece]
died Sept. 10, 1827, Turnham Green, near London, Eng.
 poet and novelist whose works articulate the feelings of many Italians during the turbulent epoch of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule; they rank among the masterpieces of Italian literature.

      Foscolo, born of a Greek mother and a Venetian father, was educated at Spalato (now Split, Croatia) and Padua, in Italy, and moved with his family to Venice about 1793. There he moved in literary circles. In 1797 the performance of his tragedy Tieste (“Thyestes”) made him famous.

      Foscolo's early enthusiasm for Napoleon, proclaimed in his ode A Bonaparte liberatore (1797; “To Bonaparte the Liberator”), quickly turned to disillusionment when Napoleon ceded Venetia to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). Foscolo's very popular novel Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1970) contains a bitter denunciation of that transaction and shows the author's disgust with Italy's social and political situation. Some critics consider this story the first modern Italian novel.

      When the Austrians and Russians invaded Italy in 1799, Foscolo, with other Italian patriots, joined the French side. Made a captain in the Italian division of the French army after the defense of Genoa in 1800, he had commissions in Milan, Bologna, and Florence, where he found time to involve himself in many love affairs.

      Finally Foscolo was sent to serve in France (1804–06). During that period he translated some classical works and Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey into Italian and wrote odes and sonnets.

      In 1807 Foscolo returned to Milan and established his literary reputation with “Dei sepolcri” (Eng. trans., “Of the Sepulchres,” c. 1820), a patriotic poem in blank verse, written as a protest against Napoleon's decree forbidding tomb inscriptions. In 1808 the poem won for its author the chair of Italian rhetoric at the University of Pavia. When the chair was abolished by Napoleon the next year, Foscolo moved on to Milan. The satirical references to Napoleon in his tragedy Aiace (first performed 1811; “Ajax”) again brought suspicion on him; in 1812 he moved to Florence, where he wrote another tragedy, Ricciarda, and most of his highly acclaimed unfinished poem, Le grazie (published in fragments 1803 and 1818, in full 1822; “The Graces”). In 1813 Foscolo returned to Milan.

      Napoleon fell the following year, the Austrians returned to Italy, and Foscolo, refusing to take the oath of allegiance, fled first to Switzerland and then in 1816 to England. Popular for a time in English society because he was an Italian patriot, Foscolo supported himself by teaching and writing commentaries on Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch for The Edinburgh Review and The Quarterly Review. He died in poverty. In 1871, with great national ceremony, his remains were moved from England and interred in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Foscolo, Ugo — (1778–1827)    A kind of Italian Shelley, Ugo Foscolo was a poet, classical translator, and patriot who was born to an Italian father and a Greek mother on the isle of Xante. He grew up in the then Venetian town of Spalato (modern day Split, in… …   Historical Dictionary of modern Italy

  • Foscolo, Ugo — orig. Niccolò Foscolo (6 feb. 1778, Zacynthus, República de Venecia–10 sep. 1827, Turnham Green, cerca de Londres, Inglaterra). Poeta y novelista italiano. Sus obras articularon los sentimientos de muchos italianos durante la época turbulenta de… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • FOSCOLO, UGO —    an Italian patriot and author, born at Zante; his literary career began in Venice with the successful performance of his tragedy Trieste, but on the Austrian occupation of the town he joined the French army; disappointed in the hope that… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Foscolo — Ugo Foscolo Ugo Foscolo, eigentl. Niccolò Foscolo, (* 6. Februar 1778 in Zákynthos; † 10. September 1827 in Turnham Green bei London) war ein italienischer Dichter. Foscolo entstammt einer der alten Familien Venedigs. Er war der Sohn des Arztes… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ugo Foscolo — Ugo Foscolo, neugr. Oúgos Fóskolos (Ούγος Φώσκολος), eigentl. Niccolò Foscolo, (* 6. Februar 1778 in Zákynthos; † 10. September 1827 in Turnham Green bei London) war ein italienischer Dichter. Foscolo entstammt einer der alten Fami …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ugo Foscolo — Retrato realizado por François Xavier Pascal Fabre. Nacimiento 6 de febrero de 1778 Zante …   Wikipedia Español

  • FOSCOLO (U.) — FOSCOLO UGO (1778 1827) Né d’une mère grecque et d’un père italien, Ugo Foscolo se déclare vénitien de cœur. À Venise, il fréquente les milieux intellectuels, éprouve ses premières émotions sentimentales. De 1796 à 1806, il se bat pour la… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Foscŏlo — Foscŏlo, Ugo (ursprünglich Niccolo), berühmter ital. Dichter und Patriot, geb. 6. Febr. 1778 auf Zante, gest. 14. Sept. 1827 in Turnham Green bei London, zu Spalato und Venedig erzogen, widmete sich in Padua klassischen Studien. Sein Trauerspiel… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Foscolo — Foscolo, Ugo, ital. Dichter und Literarhistoriker, geb. 26. Jan. 1778 auf Zante, aus venet. Familie, wirkte dichtend und lehrend für die polit. Wiedergeburt Italiens, seit 1816 Flüchtling in England, gest. 10. Okt. 1827 zu Turnham Green bei… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Foscolo — (Ugo) (1778 1827) poète italien, romantique et patriote: les Tombeaux (1807); Dernières Lettres de Iacopo Ortis (1802 et 1816), roman qui inspira les partisans du Risorgimento …   Encyclopédie Universelle

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”