Lucio Piccolo e Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Lucio Piccolo di Calanovella (October 27, 1901 in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

– May 26, 1969 in

Capo d'Orlando Capo d'Orlando ( scn, Capu d'Orlannu) is a in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy, one of the main centers of the mountain and coastal Nebrodi area. History After the destruction of the Greek colony of Agathyrnum ...

) was an Italian poet.

Biography

Lucio Piccolo, also known as Baron Lucio Piccolo di Calanovella, was first cousin to

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma, GE (; 23 December 1896 – 23 July 1957) was an Italian writer and the last Prince of Lampedusa. He is most famous for his only novel, '' Il Gattopardo'' (first publish ...

, the author of ''

The Leopard ''The Leopard'' ( it, Il Gattopardo ) is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the ''Risorgimento''. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the ...

''. Piccolo endowed himself with a vast library and mastered the major languages of the European literary tradition (as well as

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

), while living a life of relative solitude. He was also a very capable pianist, though he never performed publicly. He shared a "pastoral"Gilmour (1988), p. 76. home in Capo d'Orlando, Sicily, with his mother, his sister Giovanna, and his brother Casimiro. All four were

spiritualists Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) b ...

; his brother Casimiro was a painter in a style resembling

Arthur Rackham Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, ...

. In 1954, aged 50, he published in a private edition a "plaquette" containing nine lyric poems which he mailed to

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...

. The postage costs were grossly underestimated by the sender (35 lire), and to take possession of the book, Montale had to make up the difference by paying a further 150 lire. Montale, impressed by the high quality of the poetry of this unfamiliar writer, invited Lucio Piccolo to participate in the San Pellegrino Literary Meeting. Upon meeting Piccolo face-to-face, Montale was taken almost completely by surprise: he had expected that this previously unknown author would be a young man, not a baron in his fifties. Piccolo's works were published that year as ''Canti barocchi e altre liriche'' ("Baroque Songs and other Lyrics"). A letter accompanying the volume sent to is Montale, stated Piccolo's intention to capture the world and atmosphere of Palermo's churches and convents, and the case of mind of people associated with them, before the memory of them, fast fading, died completely. However, that letter was almost certainly written by di Lampedusa, not by Piccolo himself.

Giorgio Bassani Giorgio Bassani (4 March 1916 – 13 April 2000) was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual. Biography Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood wit ...

, in his preface to the first edition of ''The Leopard'' wrote that Piccolo's poems ranked as the best forms of pure lyric produced in Italy at that time. His poetry was appreciated by

Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

and Pound, as well as by

Montale Montale is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pistoia in the Italian region Tuscany, located about northwest of Florence and about east of Pistoia. Montale borders the following municipalities: Agliana, Cantagallo, Montemurlo, Pis ...

Works

* ''9 liriche'', Sant'Agata di Militello, 1954 (self-published) * ''Canti barocchi e altre liriche'', preface by Eugenio Montale, Mondadori, Milan, 1956 * ''Gioco a nascondere. Canti barocchi e altre liriche,'' preface by Eugenio Montale, Mondadori, Milan, 1960; reprinted 1967 * ''Plumelia,'' All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1967 * ''La Seta e altre poesie inedite e sparse,'' ed. Giovanni Musolino and Giovanni Gaglio, All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1984 * ''Il raggio verde e altre poesie inedite'', ed. Giovanna Musolino, All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1993 * ''Le esequie della luna e alcune poesie inedite'', ed. Giovanna Musolino, All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1996 * ''Antologia poetica'', ed. Giuseppe Celona, All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1999 * ''Canti barocchi e Gioco a nascondere'', Scheiwiller, V, 2001 * ''Plumelia. La seta. Il raggio verde e altre poesie'', preface by Pietro Gibellini, Scheiwiller, V, 2001 * ''L'oboe e il clarino'', Scheiwiller, Milan 2002 * ''9 liriche'', Museo Lucio Piccolo, Ficarra, 2010

References

External links

Foundation Lucio Piccolo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccolo, Lucio 1901 births 1969 deaths Writers from Palermo Italian male poets 20th-century Italian poets Sicilian-language poets 20th-century Italian male writers