Aleardo Aleardi (14 November 181217 July 1878), born Gaetano Maria, was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called
Neo-romanticists.
Biography
Aleardo was born in
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
in 1812. He was known for being an active part of the
Risorgimento
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
movement. In 1848 he was invited by
Daniele Manin
Daniele Manin (13 May 180422 September 1857) was an Italian patriot, statesman and leader of the Risorgimento in Venice. Many Italian historians consider him to be an important figure in Italian unification.
Early and family life
left, House i ...
to go to Paris to garner support for the
Venetian Republic
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
. He was arrested twice: at
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
in 1852 and at
Josephstadt
Josefstadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Josefstod'') is the eighth district of Vienna (german: 8. Bezirk, Josefstadt). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Josefstadt is a heavily po ...
in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
in 1859. After the unification of Italy, he became a member of parliament. In 1873 he became a
senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. He later became a professor of
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
at
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, where he died in 1878.
Aleardo Aleardi, whose name was originally Gaetano Maria Aleardi, was born in Verona in 1812 to Maria Channels and Count Giorgio Aleardi. After studying law at the University of Padua together with friends John Meadows and Arnaldo Fusinato, he returned to Verona with an interest in poetry and art criticism. Among his earliest compositions was Marriage (1842), an exaltation of marriage as an expression of civilization, and the Arnalda Roca in 1844. This poem had the historical protagonist of a young woman who dies defending her honor: here we find the search for theatrical effects and dramatic color that is typical of the entire oeuvre of Aleardi. His first success was achieved in 1846 with the two Letters to Mary, in verse, in which the poet addresses a friend proposing a platonic love. It was an opportunity to express his belief in the immortality of the soul and pour out his emotional suffering in a spirit of romanticism.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleardi, Aleardo
19th-century Italian writers
Italian poets
Italian male poets
Writers from Verona
Italian expatriates in the Czech Republic
1812 births
1878 deaths
19th-century poets
19th-century Italian male writers