Gennaro Placco (1826-1896) was an Arbëresh poet who was a prominent activist 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 ...

Life

Gennaro Placco was born in 1826 in

Civita, Calabria Civita ( Arbërisht: ''Çifti'') is a hilltown and ''comune ''in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Facing the Ionian Sea, it is part of the Pollino National Park. It was founded in the 15th century by Albanian ...

, an Arbëresh community. His family was poor and his uncle, a priest, helped him enroll in an Arbëresh college. He later studied law, and became an activist of the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He became one of the most well-known activists among the Arbëresh, although the community had many members involved in the patriotic movement. At around the same time he started to write, mostly poems and memories. His works focused on the promotion of patriotic and liberal ideas, including more political rights for ordinary people and the unification of Italy into a single state. His life's details are in a large part known from the writings of his friend,

Luigi Settembrini Luigi Settembrini (17 April 1813, Naples – 3 November 1877, Florence) was an Italian man of letters and politician. Biography Born in Naples, his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Bollita (the actual Nova Siri), in the province of ...

. Placco died in 1896, and nowadays he is remembered among the Arbëresh through s cultural organization that manages a museum, a library and an art gallery. The aim of the organization is the promotion of the Albanian language and culture among Arbëresh youth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Placco, Gennaro Arbëreshë people 19th-century Italian people Italian politicians 19th-century Italian poets 1826 births 1896 deaths