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52-534: Ugo Foscolo ( Italian: [ˈuːɡo ˈfoskolo, fɔs-] ; 6 February 1778 – 10 September 1827), born Niccolò Foscolo , was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet. He is especially remembered for his 1807 long poem Dei Sepolcri . Foscolo was born in Zakynthos in the Ionian Islands . His father Andrea Foscolo was an impoverished Venetian nobleman and doctor, and his mother Diamantina Spathis

104-773: A Man of Letters . However, he was frequently accused of financial ineptitude, and ended up spending time in debtors' prison , which affected his social standing after his release. According to the History of the County of Middlesex , the scientist and businessman William Allen hired Foscolo to teach Italian at the Quaker school he co-founded, the Newington Academy for Girls . His general bearing in society – as reported by Walter Scott – had not been such as to gain and retain lasting friendships. He died at Turnham Green on 10 September 1827, and

156-766: A client state of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802. After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized two states: one to the south of the Po , the Cispadane Republic , and one to the north, the Transpadane Republic . On 19 May 1797, Napoleon transferred the territories of the former Duchy of Modena to Transpadania and, on 12 Messidor (29 June), he decreed

208-488: A Didimo Chierico (" News concerning Didymus the cleric ") (1813), covering much of the same ground as that of Sterne's main character, the Reverend Yorick; which he (Foscolo) had begun during his service at Boulogne-sur-Mer . In his account of Didimo Chierico , Foscolo throws much light on his own character. His version of Sterne is an important feature in his personal history. Foscolo returned to Milan in 1813, until

260-614: A constitutional one. That this transition should experience no shock, nor be exposed to anarchy, the Executive Directory thought proper to nominate, for the present, the members of the government and the legislative body, so that the people should, after the lapse of one year, have the election to the vacant places, in conformity to the Constitution. For a great number of years, there existed no republic in Italy. The sacred fire of liberty

312-454: A me non-danzeran l'ore future, né da te, dolce amico, udrò piú il verso e la mesta armonia che lo governa, né piú nel cor mi parlerà lo spirto delle vergini Muse e dell'amore, unico spirto a mia vita raminga, qual fia ristoro a' dí perduti un sasso che distingua le mie dalle infinite ossa che in terra e in mar semina morte? Lines 1–15 English translation: Beneath the cypress shade, or sculptured urn By fond tears watered,

364-781: A single municipality, with each commune having its own municipal agent . The first constitution did not have a long life. On 14 Fructidor, year VI (31 August 1798), the French ambassador Claude-Joseph Trouvé (who was only thirty years old) dismissed the Directory, and the next day he promulgated a new constitution with a stronger executive power. The departments numbered eleven again, now covering larger geographical areas: Olona ( Milan ), Alto Po ( Cremona ), Serio ( Bergamo ), Adda and Oglio ( Morbegno ), Mella ( Brescia ), Mincio ( Mantua ), Panaro ( Modena ), Crostolo ( Reggio ), Reno ( Bologna ), Basso Po ( Ferrara ), Rubicone ( Forlì ). The membership of

416-742: A translation of and commentary upon Callimachus , commenced a version of the Iliad and began his translation of Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy . He also took part in a failed memorandum intended to present a new model of unified Italian government to Napoleon. In 1804, Foscolo returned to military service in Napoleon's cause, attached to the Italian Division of Napoleon's army, based in Boulogne-sur-Mer , as part of Napoleon's invasion force against Britain . Foscolo himself

468-534: A volunteer in the National Guard of Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic , was wounded at Cento, near Bologna, and taken as prisoner to Modena. Liberated after the French armies took Modena, he took part in the battle of the Trebbia (1799) and was wounded again in defence of the siege of Genoa (1800). Following the battle of Marengo (1800), he returned to Milan, and there gave the last touches to his " Ortis ", published

520-431: Is reflected in his novel The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1798), which was described by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica as a more politicized version of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's The Sorrows of Young Werther : "for Foscolo's hero embodies the mental sufferings and suicide of an undeceived Italian patriot just as Goethe's hero places before us the too-delicate sensitiveness, embittering and at last cutting short

572-512: Is the sleep of death Less heavy? — When for me the sun no more Shall shine on earth, to bless with genial beams This beauteous race of beings animate — When bright with flattering hues the coming hours No longer dance before me — and I hear No more, regarded friend, thy dulcet verse, Nor the sad gentle harmony it breathes — When mute within my breast the inspiring voice Of youthful poesy, and love, sole light To this my wandering life — what guerdon then For vanished years will be

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624-551: The Christian view, as opposed to the new Enlightenment ideas introduced by the French regime. Even so, Foscolo was critical of the decree, mostly for civic reasons; he acknowledges that human beings aspire to transcend death. Tombs, monuments for fallen heroes and virtuous men from the past, may inspire those living today, including artists and poets. He affirmed the value of tombs as memorials to noble souls or bright intellects. Long after

676-678: The Treaty of Lunéville on 9 February 1801, the territory of the republic was extended to the east as well, placing the frontier with the Holy Roman Empire on the River Adige without the exceptions agreed in Campo Formio. On 23 Floreal (13 May), the territory of the republic was divided into 12 departments, adding Agogna ( Novara ), restoring Lario and abolishing Adda-e-Oglio. On 21 Brumaire, year X (12 November), an Extraordinary Cisalpine Consulta

728-415: The marble monuments are destroyed by time , those memorialized can survive in artworks they have inspired, and can in turn inspire virtue in new generations. This article related to a poem is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cisalpine Republic The Cisalpine Republic ( Italian : Repubblica Cisalpina ; Lombard : Republica Cisalpina ) was a sister republic or

780-465: The Directory presented this treaty to the Great Council for ratification. The council did not agree with the terms and delayed taking a decision, but in the end, the French general Berthier compelled acceptance by the members. The Elders, however, refused it from the very beginning, as the new state was unable to finance the requested institutions. Berthier threatened to impose a military government but

832-576: The Republican armies, to secure the political existence of the Cisalpine Republic, extends its care still further; and convinced that, if liberty be the first of blessings, the revolution which attends it is the greatest of evils, it has given to the Cisalpine people their peculiar Constitution, resulting from the wisdom of the most enlightened nation. From a military regime, the Cisalpine people pass to

884-625: The Venetian oligarchy and create a free republic. The Treaty of Campo Formio (17 October 1797), under which, the French having indeed forced the dissolution of the ancient Republic of Venice, then handed over the city and the Veneto to the Austrians (in exchange for the Austrian Netherlands ) gave a rude shock to Foscolo, but did not quite destroy his hopes. The state of mind produced by that shock

936-489: The appearance in 1797 of his tragedy Tieste —a production that enjoyed a certain degree of success. Foscolo, who, for unknown reasons, had changed his Christian name Niccolò to that of Ugo, began to take an active part in the stormy political discussions which the fall of the Republic of Venice had triggered. He was a prominent member of the national committees, and addressed an ode to Napoleon , expecting Napoleon to overthrow

988-490: The birth of the Cisalpine Republic, creating a Directory for the republic and appointing its ministers. France published the constitution of the new republic on 20 Messidor (7 July), establishing the division of the territory into eleven departments : Adda ( Lodi ), Alpi Apuane ( Massa ), Crostolo ( Reggio ), Lario ( Como ), Montagna ( Lecco ), Olona ( Milan ), Panaro ( Modena ), Po ( Cremona ), Serio ( Bergamo ), Ticino ( Pavia ), and Verbano ( Varese ). The rest of Cispadania

1040-557: The cost of a head-on confrontation with the Catholic Church ) to create a gallery of "secular saints" to compete with those of the Church and sway popular feeling in favor of the newly created Italian state. [REDACTED] Category Dei Sepolcri The idea behind the poem can be traced to 1804, when the Napoleonic edict of Saint-Cloud was issued. On September 5, 1806, the edict

1092-712: The defeat of France at the Battle of Cassano in April 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition , the republic was occupied by General Suvorov's Russian and Austrian forces, which appointed a provisional administration led by the Imperial Commission of the Mantuan Count Luigi Cocastelli . They departed only on 30 May 1800, just a few days before the French won the Battle of Marengo . The Cisalpine Republic

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1144-427: The following months: Benaco ( Desenzano ) on 11 Ventose (1 March 1798), Mella ( Brescia ) on 13 Floreal (2 May), Mincio ( Mantua ) on 7 Prairial (26 May), and five departments of Emilia. The structural phase of the republic was terminated on 14 Fructidor (31 August), when France dismissed all the authorities of the republic, replacing them with a stronger executive power under a new constitution. The Cisalpine Republic

1196-595: The full international recognition and legality of the new state was ratified by the law governing the final annexation of the conquered territories. The parliament, composed of two chambers (the Great Council and the Council of the Seniors ), was appointed directly by Napoleon on 1 Frimaire (21 November). He justified this undemocratic action as a necessity of war. New departments joined the eleven original ones and Valtelline in

1248-588: The house of his mother Giulia Beccaria . Studies have noted very close analogies (textual, metrical and biographical) between the poetry of Foscolo and Manzoni in the period 1801 to 1803, such as those between Foscolo's All'amica risanata (" To the healed friend "), an ode to Antonietta Fagnani Arese , and Manzoni's Qual su le cinzie cime (" Who, on the peaks of Cynthus ") In 1807, occasioned by Napoleon's 1804 decree forbidding burials within city limits, Foscolo wrote his Dei Sepolcri (" On Sepulchres "), which may be described as his sublime effort to seek refuge in

1300-456: The ideal of a great national poet. After the fall of Venice, Foscolo moved to Milan , where he formed a friendship with the older poet Giuseppe Parini , whom he later remembered with admiration and gratitude. In Milan, he published a selection of 12 Sonnets , blending the passionate sentiments shown in " Ortis " with classical control of language and rhythm. Still hoping that his country would be freed by Napoleon, in 1799 Foscolo enlisted as

1352-523: The institution of the French Consulate . On 21 Vendémiaire (13 October), owing to the refusal of the escaped King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia to sign a treaty of peace settling the situation of the occupied Piedmont , Napoleon ordered the annexation of Novara to the republic, shifting its western border from the river Ticino to the River Sesia . After the surrender of Austria and the signing of

1404-451: The life of a private German scholar." The story of Foscolo's novel, The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis had a groundwork of melancholy fact. Jacopo Ortis had been a real person; he was a young student from Padua , and committed suicide there under circumstances akin to those described by Foscolo. Foscolo, like many of his contemporaries, had thought much about suicide. Cato the Younger and

1456-585: The local directories was reduced to three, and the municipalities for communes between 3,000 and 10,000 inhabitants were disbanded. Trouvé appointed the new Directory, which had stronger powers, and a new parliament composed of two councils: the Anziani ("Elders") and the Giuniori ("Juniors"). The first was composed of 40 elected members together with the former directors. The second had 80 members. A new coup d'état, attempted by French general Guillaume Marie Anne Brune

1508-652: The many classical examples of self-destruction described in Plutarch 's Lives appealed to the imaginations of young Italian patriots as they had to the heroes and heroines of the Gironde in France. In the case of Foscolo, as in that of Goethe, the effect produced on the writer's mind by the composition of the work seems to have been beneficial. He had seen the ideal of a great national future rudely shattered; but he did not despair of his country, and sought relief in now turning to gaze on

1560-586: The marble reared To mark my dust amid the countless throng Wherewith the Spoiler strews the land and sea? In January 1809, Foscolo was appointed to the chair of Italian rhetoric at the University of Pavia . In Pavia, Foscolo resided at the Palazzo Cornazzani , later home to Contardo Ferrini , to Ada Negri and to Albert Einstein , respectively. His inaugural lecture " On the origin and duty of literature ",

1612-562: The misery which follows on from a disregard of the first conditions of domestic economy. His contributions to the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Review , his dissertations in Italian on the text of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio , and still more his English essays on Petrarch (1821), of which the value was enhanced by Barbarina Brand 's admirable translations of some of Petrarch's finest sonnets, heightened his previous fame as

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1664-505: The monuments of Niccolò Machiavelli and Vittorio Alfieri , of Michelangelo and Galileo , in the church of Santa Croce , the pantheon of Italian glory he had celebrated in Dei Sepolcri . As noted by historian Lucy Riall , the glorification of Ugo Foscolo in the 1870s was part of the effort of the Italian government of this time (successful in completing the Italian unification but at

1716-584: The next autumn, was disavowed by the French Directory on 17 Frimaire (7 December). Formally, the Cisalpine Republic was an independent state allied with France, but the treaty of alliance established the effective subalternity of the new republic to France. The French, in fact, had control over the local police and left an army consisting of 25,000 Frenchmen, financed by the Republic. The Cisalpines were also required to form another army of 35,000 of their own men to take part in French campaigns. On 4 March 1798,

1768-465: The past from the misery of the present and the darkness of the future. The mighty dead are summoned from their tombs, as ages before they had been in the masterpieces of Greek oratory, to fight again the battles of their country. All'ombra de' cipressi e dentro l'urne confortate di pianto è forse il sonno della morte men duro? Ove piú il Sole per me alla terra non-fecondi questa bella d'erbe famiglia e d'animali, e quando vaghe di lusinghe innanzi

1820-675: The return of the Austrians in 1815; from there he passed into Switzerland , where he wrote a fierce satire in Latin on his political and literary opponents; and finally he sought the shores of England at the close of 1816. During the eleven years spent by Foscolo in London, until his death there, he enjoyed all the social distinction which the most brilliant circles of the English capital could confer on foreigners of political and literary renown, and experienced all

1872-482: The tricolour flag was restored. Napoleon's new victories gave him a chance to stabilize the political situation in all of northern Italy. On 3 Vendémiaire , year IX (25 September), the powers of the Extraordinary Commission were concentrated in the hands of a more restricted Committee of Government, composed of three members: Giovan Battista Sommariva , Sigismondo Ruga and Francesco Visconti , reflecting

1924-731: Was Greek . In 1788, upon the death of his father, who worked as a physician in Spalato (present-day Split, Croatia ), the family moved to Venice , and Foscolo completed the studies he began at the Dalmatian grammar school at the University of Padua . Amongst his Paduan teachers was the Abbé Melchiore Cesarotti , whose version of Ossian was very popular in Italy, and who influenced Foscolo's literary tastes; he knew both modern and Ancient Greek . His literary ambition revealed itself in

1976-448: Was applied to Italy . In short, it stated that all burials must take place outside the city walls; that, for democratic reasons, the burial monuments must all be of the same size; and that their inscriptions would be controlled by a special commission. The edict's implementation caused Foscolo to meditate upon the nature and philosophy of death . Irreligious, Foscolo did not share the view of his fellow poet Pindemonte , who defended

2028-607: Was based on the French Constitution of 1795 . A five-member directory constituted the executive branch of government. The territory was divided into departments which elected the judges of peace , the magistrates and the electors , one for every 200 people having the right to vote. The latter elected two councils: the Consiglio dei Seniori ("Council of the Seniors") and the Gran Consiglio ("Great Council"). The first

2080-474: Was buried at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick , where his restored tomb remains to this day; it refers to him as the "wearied citizen poet", and incorrectly states his age as 50. Forty-four years after his death, on 7 June 1871, his remains were exhumed at the request of the King of Italy and taken to Florence, where with all the pride, pomp and circumstance of a great national mourning, found their final resting-place beside

2132-487: Was composed of five members and exercised executive power. Directors included local politicians such as Giovanni Galeazzo Serbelloni , the first president, and Francesco Melzi d'Eril , who would later serve as vice president of the Italian Republic . The Directory chose its secretary and appointed the six ministers: for justice, war, foreign affairs, internal affairs, police, and finance. The supreme authority, however,

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2184-490: Was conceived in the same spirit as his Dei Sepolcri . In his lecture, Foscolo urged his young countrymen to study literature, not in obedience to academic traditions, but in their relation to individual and national life and growth. The sensation produced by this lecture played no small part in provoking the decree of Napoleon by which the chair of rhetoric was abolished in all the Italian universities under Napoleonic control. Soon afterwards, in 1811 Foscolo's tragedy of Ajax

2236-432: Was extinguished, and the finest part of Europe was under the yoke of strangers. It belongs to the Cisalpine Republic to show to the world by its wisdom, its energy, and the good organization of its armies, that modern Italy is not degenerated, and is still worthy of liberty. (Signed) Buonaparte. The institutions of the Cisalpine Republic were very similar to those of France. Its first constitution , adopted on 8 July 1797,

2288-570: Was for many years under the dominion of the House of Austria. The French Republic succeeded it by right of conquest. It now renounces this right, and the Cisalpine Republic is free and independent. Recognized by France and by the Emperor, it will soon be equally acknowledged by the rest of Europe. The Executive Directory of the French Republic, not content with employing its influence, and the victories of

2340-525: Was initially composed of 40 to 60 members and approved the laws and modifications to the Constitutional Chart. The second initially had from 80 to 120 members and proposed the laws. Both councils discussed treaties, the choice of a Directory, and the determination of tributes. The legislative corps included men like Pietro Verri , Giuseppe Parini and the scientist Alessandro Volta . The electors had to be landowners or wealthy. The Cisalpine directory

2392-747: Was later replaced by General Brune. The latter, after replacing some Elders and Juniors, achieved the signing of the treaty on 8 June. Due to multiple attempts by the Cisalpine government to annex the Italian-speaking Swiss territories south of the Alps , relations with the Swiss Confederacy were strained. The Cisalpine Republic ended up taking control of Valtellina from the Three Leagues and Campione d'Italia and annexing them. A Cisalpine attempt to conquer Lugano by surprise failed in 1797. After

2444-557: Was merged into the Cisalpine Republic on 27 July, with the capital of the unified state being Milan . On 1 Brumaire (22 October), Bonaparte announced the union of Valtelline with the Republic, after its secession from the Swiss Three Grey Leagues . Austria acknowledged the new entity in the Treaty of Campoformio of 17 October, gaining in exchange what remained of the Venetian Republic . On 25 Brumaire (15 November),

2496-554: Was presented at Milan, with little success; and because of its supposed allusions to Napoleon, he was forced in 1812 to move from Milan to Tuscany . The chief fruits of his stay in Florence were the tragedy of Ricciarda , the Ode to the Graces , left unfinished, and the completion of his translation of Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey , including his own fictional memoir Notizia intorno

2548-521: Was restored by Napoleon on 15 Prairial , year VIII (4 June 1800). On 28 Prairial (17 June), the First Consul appointed an Extraordinary Commission of Government of nine members and a legislative Consulta : the final list of the executive and legislative institutions was published on 5 Messidor (24 June). On 16 Messidor (6 July) all the acts issued during the Austrian occupation were annulled, and afterwards,

2600-510: Was stationed in Valenciennes , where he fathered a daughter, Floriana, by Sophia St John Hamilton, daughter of Lady Mary Hamilton . Following the defeat at Trafalgar (1805) and Napoleon's abandonment of his plans for invasion, Foscolo returned to Italy in 1806. Before leaving France, however, Foscolo once again met Alessandro Manzoni in Paris. Some seven years younger, Manzoni was still living in

2652-645: Was summoned in Lyon . In January 1802, the Consulta decided to change the name of the State to the Italian Republic , when Napoleon had himself elected president, on 24 January, on the advice of Talleyrand . Two days later, in a scene officially commemorated by Nicolas-André Monsiau , Bonaparte appeared in the Collège de la Trinité of Lyon , attended by Murat , Berthier , Louis Bonaparte , Hortense and Joséphine de Beauharnais, and heard

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2704-401: Was the commander of the French troops. The republic also adopted the French Republican Calendar . Each department had its own local directory of five members, as did communes between 3,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. The biggest communes were divided into municipalities, with a central joint commission to handle the general affairs of the cities. The smallest communes were united in districts with

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