Saverio Baldacchini (born Francesco Saverio Baldacchini Gargano; 24 April 1800,

Barletta Barletta (; Salentino: ''Varrétte'' or ''Barlétte'') is a city and ''comune'' in Apulia, in southeastern Italy. Barletta is the '' capoluogo'', together with Andria and Trani, of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It has a population of a ...

- 13 March 1879,

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 ...

) was an Italian politician, writer and poet.

Life

Born into an aristocratic family originating in

Amantea Amantea ( Calabrian: ; ) is a town, former bishopric, ''comune'' (municipality) and Latin Catholic titular see in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. It is the twentieth municipality in the region by population, while ...

, he was the son of Giuseppe Baldacchini and Giovanna Vecchioni. His father died when he and his brother Michele were still very young and so the family moved to Naples, where he studied under the historian Carlo Troya, published political essays whilst still a student and finally ended up in exile after the failure of the 1820-1821 Revolution. He travelled extensively in Italy, Paris and Britain, reaching as far as London and becoming friends with politicians and intellectuals such as

Carlo Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

and Alessandro Poerio. He also took part in the debate between classicism and romanticism. He returned to Italy in 1837, where he backed Basilio Puoti's moves for

purism Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier f ...

in Italian literature. He wrote an essay in Puoti's honour, in which he sought to refute accusations of pedantry against Puoti, perhaps arising from a misunderstanding of ''Ultimo dei puristi'' by

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 ...

. In 1840 Baldacchini married the widowed mother of

Ruggero Bonghi Ruggero Bonghi (20 March 1826 – 22 October 1895) was an Italian scholar, writer and politician. Ruggero Bonghi was born in Naples and after being widowed his mother remarried in 1840 to Saverio Baldacchini, a major influence on Bonghi. Exi ...

, who was greatly influenced by his new step-father. He became more and more involved in moderate liberal politics, founding several daily newspapers and in 1848 becoming a deputy to the Neapolitan Parliament for the college of Bari. There he headed a movement to put the constitution into immediate effect and became president of the Commission for Public Education. After Ferdinand II's coup and the replacement of Carlo Troya's government with that of Gennaro Spinelli di Cariati on 15 May 1848, Baldacchini left politics to devote himself to writing. After

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

he returned to politics, taking an active interest in reforming the school system of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and strengthening Naples University and the

Accademia Pontaniana The Accademia Pontaniana was the first academy in the modern sense, as a learned society for scholars and humanists and guided by a formal statute. Patronized by Alfonso V of Aragon, it was founded by the poet Antonio Beccadelli in Naples durin ...

. He was elected as a deputy in the Kingdom of Italy's parliament for the Barletta college and was President of the Chamber's Library Commission from 1863 to 1865, but he was defeated by Pasquale Petrone in the repeat of the cancelled 1865 elections. His nomination as a senator in 1868 was not confirmed Mario Quattrucci
''op.cit.''
A. Fino, ''Cattolici e Mezzogiorno agli inizi del '900. "Il buon senso" di Nicola Monterisi'', Congedo Editore, Galatina 1989, p. 38. The case was cited in E. Pagliano, ''Il Senato e la nomina dei senatori'', in «Archivio giuridico Filippo Serafini», 1906, n. 77, pp. 369-415 (cit. 377), ora fra
documenti (p. 9)
della Camera dei Deputati and a few days later had a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

, leaving him paralysed for the rest of his life.

Opera

Purist and classicist, Baldacchini was sensitive to romantic influences in art literature, and after the release of the poem Ugo da Cortona (1839) he found himself at the center of the classic-romantic controversies, as for some he was romantic, for others an exemplary classicist. Come sintetizzò Guido Mazzoni, Saverio Baldacchini «romanticheggiò classicamente». He also wrote a novel in verse Claudio Vannini or The Artist (1835),

Works

Poems

* ''Ugo da Cortona : canti di Saverio Baldacchini''. Napoli: Off. Tipografica, 1839 * ''L'Ideale : versi alla primavera del 1857''. Napoli: Stamperia del Fibreno, 1857 * ''Riposi ed ombre : versi''. Napoli: Stamperia del Fibreno, 1858 * ''Polinnia : versi raccolti nell'inverno del 1859''. Napoli: stamperia del Fibreno, 1859
on-line
* ''Espero, Inedite di Saverio Baldacchini : 1850-1860''. Napoli: F. Giannini, 1867 * ''Claudio Vannini o l'artista : canto''. Napoli: De Stefano e soci, 1836
on-line
* ''Nuovi canti e traduzioni''. Napoli: Stab. tip. Ghio, 1869 * Rime scelt

Prose

* ''Prose''. 3 voll. Napoli: Stamperia del vaglio, 1873 * ''Purismo e romanticismo'', a cura di Edmondo Cione. Bari: G. Laterza, 1936

References

Bibliography (in Italian)

* Leonardo Ambrosini, ''Saverio Baldacchini: l'uomo e il patriotta, lo scrittore e il poeta''. Bari: Società tipografica pugliese, 1924 * Mario Quattrucci
''Baldacchini Gargano, Francesco Saverio''
in «Dizionario biografico degli Italiani», vol. V,

Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani a ...

, Roma 1963.
Treccani
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldacchini, Saverio 1800 births 1879 deaths Writers from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies People from Barletta 19th-century Italian poets 19th-century Italian male writers 19th-century Italian politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Kingdom of Italy) Italian people of the Italian unification