Luigi Settembrini (17 April 1813,

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 ...

– 3 November 1877,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. 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 of Matera. Aged 22, he was appointed professor of eloquence at Catanzaro, and married Raffaela Luigia Faucitano (1835). While still a young man he had been affected by the wave of

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

then spreading all over Italy, and soon after his marriage he began to conspire mildly against the Bourbon government. Betrayed by a priest, he was arrested in 1839 and imprisoned at Naples; although liberated three years later, he lost his professorship and had to maintain himself by private lessons. Nevertheless, he continued to conspire, and in 1847, he published anonymously the ''Protest of the People of the Two Sicilies'', a scathing indictment of the Bourbon government. On the advice of his friends, he went to

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

on a British warship, but although when King Ferdinand II granted a constitution (February 16, 1848), he returned to Naples and was given an appointment at the ministry of education, he soon resigned on account of the prevailing chaos, and retired to a farm at Posillipo. When reaction set in, once more, Settembrini was arrested as a suspect (June 1849) and imprisoned. After trial, he and two other "politicals" were condemned to death, and nineteen others to varying terms of imprisonment (February 1851). The death sentences were, however, commuted to imprisonment for life, and Settembrini was sent to the dungeons of Santo Stefano. There, he remained for eight years. His friends, including Antonio Panizzi, then in England, made various unsuccessful attempts to liberate him, and at last, he was deported with sixty-five other political prisoners. The exiles received an enthusiastic welcome in London, but Settembrini, after a short stay in England, joined his family at

in 1860. On the formation of the Italian kingdom, he was appointed professor of Italian literature at the university of Naples, and devoted the rest of his life to literary pursuits. In 1875, he was nominated senator. His chief work is his ''Lezioni di letteratura italiana'', of which the dominant note is the conviction that Italian literature "is as the very soul of the nation, seeking, in opposition to medieval mysticism, reality, freedom, independence of reason, truth and beauty" ( P. Villari). Settembrini's homosexuality was first mentioned in 1977, the year of the publication of ''The Neoplatonics'', a homoerotic fantasy written while in prison soon after completing his translation of

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

(1858–1859). Left among his papers at his death, the manuscript was afterwards read by

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce, ( , ; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

, who advised against publication.Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon. ''Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History'', 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Settembrini, Luigi 1813 births 1877 deaths Academics from Naples Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people Italian gay writers Italian LGBTQ politicians Italian people of the Italian unification Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy Exiled Italian politicians