Basilio Puoti (27 July 1782,

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

– 19 July 1847, Naples) was an Italian literary critic, lexicographer and grammarian.

Life

Basilio Puoti was born into an old noble family which claimed descent from

Adelchi ''Adelchi'' () is the second tragedy written by Alessandro Manzoni.#Banham 1998, Banham 1998, p. 678. Set on the Italian Peninsula, the play was first published in 1822. The main character is Adalgis (prince), Adelchis, the son of the last Lombar ...

, son of

Desiderius Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius (born – died ), was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. De ...

. He graduated in

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

in 1809. He became the inspector general of public education for the

Kingdom of Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area ...

and then left that post to set up and teach in an Italian-language school in one of the palazzi in Naples in 1825. Its students included Giacinto de' Sivo,

Luigi Settembrini Luigi Settembrini (17 April 1813, Naples – 3 November 1877, Florence) was an Italian man of letters and politician. Biography Born in Naples, his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Bollita (the actual Nova Siri), in the province o ...

and

Francesco De Sanctis Francesco de Sanctis (28 March 1817 – 29 December 1883) was an Italian literary critic, scholar and politician, leading critic and historian of Italian language and literature during the 19th century. Biography De Sanctis was born in the so ...

. He opposed all the "barbari" (barbarians) or Romantic poets except

Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel ''The Betrothed (Manzoni novel), The Betrothed'' (orig. ) (1827), generally ranked among ...

, whose nationalist sentiments he shared. Puoti was instead a

purist Purism is an art movement that took place between 1918 and 1925. Purism may also refer to: * Purism (Spanish architecture) (1530–1560), a phase of Renaissance architecture in Spain * Purism (company), company manufacturing Librem personal compu ...

, more open regarding the Italian lexicon but advocating strict imitation of 15th and 16th century models when it came to style. He translated

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and was a member of the

Accademia della Crusca The (; ), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language, as well as the oldest Academy#Linguisti ...

Selected works

* * * * * *

References

Bibliography

* ''La giovinezza di Francesco De Sanctis'', autobiographical fragment published by

Pasquale Villari Pasquale Villari (3 October 1827 – 11 December 1917) was an Italian historian and politician. Early life and publications Villari was born in Naples and took part in the risings of 1848 there against the Bourbons and subsequently fled to Flo ...

, Morano, Napoli 1924. *

External links (in Italian)

* Scheda (online) del Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Puoti, Basilio 18th-century Neapolitan people 1782 births 1847 deaths Latin–Italian translators Greek–Italian translators Linguists of Italian Italian lexicographers Italian literary critics 19th-century Neapolitan people 19th-century Italian translators 19th-century lexicographers Scholars from the Kingdom of Naples Writers from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies