Manzoni

Manzoni, Alessandro, Conte di (1785-1873), a great Italian writer, was a native of Milan and a grandson of Beccaria. He was educated at Pavia, and spent some years at Paris before his marriage. After losing the greater part of his property, he returned to Milan. His literary career was short, but fruitful. It began with the publication of some'hymns of great beauty. II Conte di Carmagnola, a tragedy published in 1819, was attacked by the Quarterly Review, but defended by Goethe. It was followed by Adelchi; by II Cinque Maggio, an ode on the death of Napoleon I.; and, above all, by the romance IPromessi Sposi (1827). Manzoni also wrote Observations on Catholic Morality, translated into English as -4 Vindication of Catholic Morality. In 1860 the great writer was named a senator of Italy, and helped to draw up a scheme for the merging of dialects in a national language.