Leopardi

Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837), was born near Ancona. His father was a scholar, and the son, making use of his large library, became a fine classical scholar before he was out of his teens. At eighteen he wrote a long poem, which was succeeded in 1819 by his Ode to Italy and the Ode on the Monument of Dante. In 1822 he went to Rome, his father's wish being that he should take Orders, but he soon developed sceptical views, and returned after a year. For three years he continued at Recanati, and produced several lyrics, but in 1825 he went to Bologna in order to edit Cicero and Petrarch for a Milan publisher. Here he published in 1827 his Operette Morali. After living for a time at Florence, Milan, and Pisa, he was driven by stress of circumstances back to Recanati. In 1831 he escaped to Florence, where some more poems, including The. Resurrection and The Song of the Wandering Shepherd in Asia, were published. He left Florence for Rome in consequence of disappointment in love, but returned after some months. Having made the acquaintance of a Neapolitan named Ranieri, he accompanied him to Naples, where he composed La Gincstra, and The Sequel to the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a satire on the attempted Neapolitan revolution of 1820. An account of his last years at Naples is given in Ranieri's Sette Anni di Sodaliz-io. He died somewhat suddenly in 1837.