Arturo Colautti ( Zara, 9 October 1851 –

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, 9 November 1914) was a

Dalmatian Italian Dalmatian Italians (; ) are the historical Italian national minority living in the region of Dalmatia, now part of Croatia and Montenegro. Historically, Italian language-speaking Dalmatians accounted for 12.5% of population in 1865, 5.8% in 18 ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

polemicist Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

and

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

. He was a strong supporter of

Italian irredentism Italian irredentism ( ) was a political movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Kingdom of Italy, Italy with irredentism, irredentist goals which promoted the Unification of Italy, unification of geographic areas in which indig ...

for his native

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

Biography

Youth in Dalmatia

Born in Zara,

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, the youngest of four children of Francesco Colautti, a Friulian engineer employed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Luisa Couarde, a French native of

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, Arturo spent his adolescence in his native town, where he graduated in the local High School and then did his military service in the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

. He was interested very early in journalism: at the age of 17 he founded the newspaper ''Il Progresso'', followed by ''La Leva''. At that time he studied at the Universities of

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and

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, majoring in political science and geography. He thereafter went to Fiume to direct ''La Bilancia'', to return again to his native Zara to direct ''Il Dalmata'' from 1872 to 1874. He relocated to

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in 1876, where he founded the magazine of culture and literature, ''Rivista Dalmatica''. The magazine did not last long, because strongly pro-Italian and related to Antonio Bajamonti. In the same year, he was asked to direct ''L'Avvenire'' and – from 1876 to 1880 – he developed it as an

irredentist Irredentism () is one state's desire to annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to or the same as the population of the parent state. Hist ...

newspaper. Following the publication of an anti-Austrian article on his newspaper, in September 1880, Colautti was attacked by a group of soldiers that rendered him impaired for a few months. Shortly after, also because of the threat of lawsuit for crimes against the stringent Austrian press laws and in support of Italian irredentism, Colautti chose the path of exile and took refuge in the Kingdom of Italy.

The Neapolitan Period and the late years

"He first settled in

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, where he founded ''L’Euganeo'', then in

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, where he founded ''L’Italia''" and collaborated with various newspapers. Colautti founded the ''Corriere del Mattino'' in

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(1885), then became its director and remained there for fifteen years, after which he undertook the direction of the '' Corriere di Napoli''. In the many years spent in Naples, he wrote hundreds of articles, but also poems, novels and plays, gaining an excellent literary reputation. Some of his operatic librettos were set to music (''

Adriana Lecouvreur ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' () is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play '' Adrienne Lecouvreur'' by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 ...

'' by Cilea, ''

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

'' by

Umberto Giordano Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas. His best-known work in that genre was Andrea Chénier (1896). He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Se ...

and ''Doña Flor'' by

Niccolò van Westerhout Nicola van Westerhout (also ''Niccolò''; 17 December 1857 – 21 August 1898) was an Italian composer. Biography Early life and education Of Flemish origin, the family van Westerhout settled in Apulia in the seventeenth century, first in Bari ...

). Colautti was a forceful writer and vehement polemicist. "He also wrote a sentimental composition in seven sonnets, ''Annie'', for

Annie Vivanti Anna Emilia "Annie" Vivanti Chartres (7 April 1866 – 20 February 1942), also known as Anita Vivanti or Anita Vivanti Chartres, was a British-born Italian writer. Life and career The daughter of Anselmo Vivanti, an Italian exile of Jewish des ...

, which was published in the ''Cronaca Partenopea''." "He dueled with Matteo Renato Imbriani." Under the pseudonym of "Fram", Colautti was also a military critic of the ''

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

'' during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

(1904) and again in Milan from 1912 to 1914, when he directed ''L'Alba'', and returned to work in Milan at ''Via Solferino''. For the duration of the exile, Colautti maintained close contacts with the Dalmatian irredentists and actively participated nationally in various events and conferences. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Colautti was one of the many

interventionists, but died a few months before Italian intervention in the conflict. For matters of public order, he had no public honors, and his body was buried with a private ceremony at the cemetery of Verano.

Notes

References

* ''Arturo Colautti'', in ''Dizionario enciclopedico della letteratura italiana'', Laterza, Bari 1966 * G. Baroni, ''Arturo Colautti'', in F.Semi-V.Tacconi (cur.), ''Istria e Dalmazia. Uomini e tempi. Dalmazia'', Del Bianco, Udine 1992 * G. Paoli Palcich, ''Arturo Colautti: la vita e le opere'', in ''La Rivista Dalmatica'', Roma 1984

External links