Aleardo Aleardi (14 November 181217 July 1878), born Gaetano Maria, was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called Neo-romanticists.

Biography

Aleardo was born in

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

in 1812. He was known for being an active part of the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single s ...

movement. In 1848 he was invited by Daniele Manin to go to Paris to garner support for the

Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. He was arrested twice: at

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

in 1852 and at Josephstadt in Bohemia in 1859. After the unification of Italy, he became a member of parliament. In 1873 he became a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

. He later became a professor of

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, where he died in 1878. Aleardo Aleardi, whose name was originally Gaetano Maria Aleardi, was born in Verona in 1812 to Maria Channels and Count Giorgio Aleardi. After studying law at the University of Padua together with friends John Meadows and Arnaldo Fusinato, he returned to Verona with an interest in poetry and art criticism. Among his earliest compositions was Marriage (1842), an exaltation of marriage as an expression of civilization, and the Arnalda Roca in 1844. This poem had the historical protagonist of a young woman who dies defending her honor: here we find the search for theatrical effects and dramatic color that is typical of the entire oeuvre of Aleardi. His first success was achieved in 1846 with the two Letters to Mary, in verse, in which the poet addresses a friend proposing a platonic love. It was an opportunity to express his belief in the immortality of the soul and pour out his emotional suffering in a spirit of romanticism.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aleardi, Aleardo 19th-century Italian writers Italian poets Italian male poets Writers from Verona Italian expatriates in the Czech Republic 1812 births 1878 deaths 19th-century poets 19th-century Italian male writers