Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni (21 November 1692 – 20 December 1768) was an Italian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and librettist. As a poet Frugoni was one of the best of the school of the Arcadian Academy, and his lyrics and pastorals had great facility and elegance. His collected works were published at Parma in 10 volumes in 1799, and a more complete edition appeared at

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...

in the same year in 15 volumes.

Biography

Born at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, he was originally destined for the church and at the age of fifteen, against his will, was shut up in a convent. In the following year he was forced to make monastic vows, but had no liking for this life. He acquired considerable reputation as an elegant writer both of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

prose and verse; and from 1716 to 1724 he filled the chairs of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

successively, attracting by his brilliant fluency a large number of students at each university. Through Cardinal Bentivoglio he was recommended to Antonio Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma, who appointed him his

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

; and he remained at the court of Parma until Antonio's death, after which he returned to Genoa. Shortly afterwards, through Bentivoglio's influence, he obtained from the pope the remission of his monastic vows, and succeeded in recovering a portion of his paternal inheritance. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle he returned to the court of Parma, and there devoted the later years of his life chiefly to poetical composition. He corresponded with

Francesco Algarotti Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He wa ...

during the genesis of

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

´s dramatic tragedy entitled ''

Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere With ...

'' into ''

Ippolito ed Aricia ''Ippolito ed Aricia'' is a " reform opera" in five acts by Tommaso Traetta with an Italian libretto by Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni. The opera is based upon abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin's libretto for Rameau's earlier opera ''Hippolyte et Aricie'', wh ...

'' an opera by

Tommaso Traetta Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic ref ...

. Among his pupils was the abate Marco Cappello, who wrote mainly burlesque poetry.La Caduta Della Repubblica di Venezia ed I Suoi Ultimi Cinquant Anni Studii
by Girolamo Dandolo; Publisher, Pietro Natarovich, Venice (1855); page 161.

Sources

* * Marco Russo, ''Tommaso Traetta: i Libretti della Riforma - Parma 1759-61'', Facoltà di Lettere di Trento, Trento 2005; * Marco Russo, ''Tommaso Traetta: Maestro di cappella napoletano'', Edizioni S. Marco dei Giustiniani, Genova 2006. * Fabrizio Cassoni, Gianfranco Spada, ''Le Feste d'Imeneo, Tommaso Traetta a Parma'', Traettiana, London 2010.

References

1692 births 1768 deaths 17th-century Genoese people 18th-century Genoese people 18th-century Italian poets 18th-century Latin-language writers 18th-century Italian Christian monks Writers from Genoa Italian male poets Italian librettists Sapienza University of Rome faculty {{italy-poet-stub