Pietro Cossa (25 January 1830 – 30 August 1881) was an Italian dramatist.

Life

Cossa was born at

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, ...

, and claimed descent from the family of

Antipope John XXIII Baldassarre Cossa (died 22 December 1419) was Pisan antipope as John XXIII (1410–1415) during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church today regards him as an antipope in opposition to Pope Gregory XII, whom it recognizes as the rightful succ ...

. He manifested an independent spirit from his youth, and was expelled from a Jesuit school on the double charge of indocility and patriotism. After fighting for the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

in 1849, he emigrated to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. However, failing to establish himself he returned to Italy, and lived precariously as a literary man until 1870, when his reputation was established by the unexpected success of his first acted tragedy, ''Nero''. From this time to his death Cossa continued to produce a play a year, usually upon some classical subject. ''Cleopatra'', ''Messalina'', ''Julian'', enjoyed great popularity, and his dramas on subjects derived from Italian history, ''Rienzi'' and ''The Borgias'', were also successful. ''Plautus'', a comedy, was preferred by the author himself, and is more original. Incidental music for some of his plays was written by celebrated Italian composers, notably

Luigi Mancinelli Luigi Mancinelli (; 5 February 1848 – 2 February 1921) was an Italian Conducting, conductor, cello, cellist and composer. His early career was in Italy, where he established a reputation in Perugia and then Bologna. After 1886 he worked mostl ...

. The entry for Cossa in the 1911 ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' evaluated his style as follows: Cossa died at

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

in 1881. His collected ''Teatro poetico'' was published in 1887.

References

;Attribution *

External links

Page at Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cossa, Pietro 1830 births 1881 deaths Writers from Rome Italian male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Italian male writers