Bartolomeo Sestini (14 October 1792– 11 November 1822) was an Italian poet.
Life
Born in the Santomato district of
Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
, he was the son of Maddalena Biagini and Francesco Sestini. His father tried to make his son study geometry, but from his youth he was more interested in poetry. He briefly studied under the painter
Giuseppe Vannucci. At the age of 13, he was sent to Florence to study perspective under Castagnoli, mathematics under Ferroni, and architecture (the profession of his father) under Silvestri. But again, he drifted towards poetry, and joined circles that included Foscolo, Sgricci, and Benedetti.
Whilst he was with his fiancee in the countryside she was struck by lightning and killed - this inspired his poem ''Amori campestri'', which was published. He later met
Ugo Foscolo in villa Belvedere in Florence. After travelling around the cities of Italy, attracted by the story of
Pia de' Tolomei
Pia de' Tolomei was an Italian noblewoman from Siena identified as "la Pia," a minor character in Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' who was murdered by her husband. Her brief presence in the poem has inspired many works in art, music, literature, and cin ...
in Dante's ''
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...
'', he published a verse novella on the topic entitled ''Pia de' Tolomei'' in
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
. In its preface he wrote "I publish la Pia, a subject dear to anyone who has read the four mysterious lines in the ''Divine Comedy''".
During the Napoleonic invasions he traveled to Ancona, then Rome and ultimately to Naples. In 1819, while in Palermo, he was suspected of joining the
Carbonari and so fled to Paris. While in jail he wrote poems titled ''Canzone all patria'' and ''La prigionia die Torquatto Tasso''. he was released and traveled back to Tuscany. In 1821, while in Viterbo, he wrote''Guido di Monforte Conte di Montefeltro'' and a dramatic work: ''Il trionfo di Santa Rosa dopo l'esilio''. In 1822, he went into exile in Paris, where he would die young. The first edition of ''Pia'' was published in Ravenna under the pseudonym Giorgio Serighi three years after his death.
[ Vittorio Capponi, ''Bibliografia Pistoiese'', Pistoia, 1874.]
References
External links (in Italian)
Enciclopedia treccani Sestini, Bartolomeo
* Bartolomeo Sestini, ''Pia de' Tolomei''
Sonzogno, Milano, 1887Borroni e Scotti, Milano, 1848
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sestini, Bartolomeo
People from Pistoia
19th-century Italian poets
19th-century male writers
1792 births
1822 deaths
Writers from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany