Alessandro Verri (9 November 1741 – 23 September 1816) was an
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 ...
author.
Born in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
into an aristocratic family, as a young man he participated in the , founded together with his brother
Pietro Verri
Count Pietro Verri (12 December 1728 – 28 June 1797) was an economist, historian, philosopher and writer. Among the most important personalities of the 18th-century Italian culture, he is considered among the fathers of the Lombard reformist E ...
and their friends
Cesare Beccaria,
Alfonso Longo,
Pietro Secchi, Giambattista Biffi and Luigi Lambertenghi. Later he collaborated in the magazine ''
Il Caffè''. In this period he wrote the ''Saggio sulla Storia d'Italia'' ("Essay on Italian History", 1761–1766).
Background
Subsequently Verri moved to Rome where his main attention moved to theatre. He was one of the first Italian translators of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
. He wrote two tragedies: ''Pantea'' and ''La congiura di Milano'' ("The Conspiracy of Milan"), both published in 1779.
In 1782 he wrote the novel ''Le avventure di Saffo poetessa di Mitilene'' ("The adventures of Sappho, poet of Mitilene"), but his most famous work is the ''Notti romane al sepolcro degli Scipioni'' ("Roman Nights at the Sepulchre of the Scipios"), published in two parts in 1792 and 1804, in which the ghosts of illustrious men of the past (
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
,
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
and others) evoke the ancient Roman civilizations, stressing its violent background in contrast with the peaceful
Christian civilization
Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the history and formation of Western society. Throughout its long history, the Church has been a major source of social services like schooling and medical care; an inspiration for art, cult ...
. A third part remained unpublished until 1967.
His other works include a translation of ''Daphnis and Chloe'' (1812), the novel ''La vita di Erostrato'' ("Life of
Herostratus
Herostratus ( grc, Ἡρόστρατος) was a 4th-century BC Greek, accused of seeking notoriety as an arsonist by destroying the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (on the outskirts of present-day Selçuk). The conclusion prompted the creat ...
", 1815) and ''Vicende memorabili de' suoi tempi dal 1789 al 1801'' ("Memorable happenings of His Times from 1789 to 1801", 1858). Also notable is his correspondence with his brother Pietro.
Verri died in Rome in 1816.
[dal 1792. Isidoro Carini, L'Arcadia dal 1690–1890: memorie storiche, 1891, pag. 598]
The younger brother of Alessandro Verri and Pietro Verri, Giovanni Verri, is supposed to be the natural father of the noted Italian novelist and poet
Alessandro Manzoni
Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel '' The Betrothed'' (orig. it, I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the maste ...
. Their other brother,
Carlo, was also a politician.
Further reading
Alessandro Verri, ''Le avventure di Saffo poetessa di Mitilene'' Roma e Genova, Stamperia Frugoni, 1809.
testi online di Alessandro Verri a cura di Giovanni Antonio Maggi, ''Opere scelte di Alessandro Verri'' Milano, 1822.
opera postuma di Alessandro Verri a cura di Giovanni Antonio Maggi, ''Vicende memorabili dal 1789 al 1801'' Milano, Tipografia Guglielmini, 1858.
testo online di Alessandro Verri a cura di Renzo Negri, ''Le Notti Romane'' Bari, Laterza, 1967.
Scheda online a cura Gianni Francioni, Sergio Romagnoli, ''« Il Caffè » dal 1764 al 1766'' Collana «Pantheon», Bollati Boringhieri Editore, 2005 Due volumi,
* F. Novati, A. Giulini, E. Greppi, G. Seregni, ''Carteggio di Pietro e di Alessandro Verri'', 12 volumi, Milano, L. F. Cogliati, Milesi & figli, Giuffrè, 1910–1942.
* Gianmarco Gasparri (a cura) ''Viaggio a Parigi e Londra (1766–1767) – Carteggio di Pietro ed Alessandro Verri'', Milano, Adelphi, 1980.
* Nicola Raponi, ''Alessandro Verri e il Trattato di Tolentino'', in Quaderni del Bicentenario 2, Tolentino, 1997, ''pp. 125–132''
* Isabella Colucci, ''Antonio Canova, la marchesa Boccapaduli e Alessandro Verri:lettere a altre testimonianze inedite'', in Paragone Arte, 49/1998 (1999), pp. 64–74
* Fabio Tarzia, ''Libri e rivoluzioni. Figure e mentalità nella Roma di fine ancien régime'', Milano, Franco Angeli, 2000.
scheda onlinecapitoli online
* Marina Pieretti, ''Margherita Sparapani Gentili Boccapaduli. Ritratto di una gentildonna romana (1735–1820)'', in “Rivista storica del Lazio”, XIII-XIV, Roma, 2001
scheda online
* Isabella Colucci, ''Il salotto e le collezioni della Marchesa Boccapaduli'', Quaderni storici, N. 2, agosto 2004, pp. 449–49
scheda online
* Vittoria Orlandi Balzari, ''Alessandro Verri antiquario in Roma'', Quaderni storici, N. 2, agosto 2004, pp. 495–52
scheda online
* Nicola Raponi, ''Il mito di Bonaparte in Italia. Atteggiamenti della società milanese e reazioni nello stato romano'', Studi Storici Carocci, 2005,
* Nicola Raponi, ''Alessandro Verri a Pievefavera (1793–1795) : allarmi rivoluzionari e scoperta di un tranquillo rifugio nella provincia romana'', Estr. da: ''Archivio storico lombardo : giornale della Società storica lombarda'', Milano, Cisalpino, 2007.
* Marina Pieretti, ''Il Viaggio d'Italia di Margherita Sparapani Gentili Boccapaduli'', in "Scritture di donne – La memoria restituita", Atti del convegno, Roma, 23–24 marzo 2004, a cura di Marina Caffiero e Manola Ida Venzo, marzo 2007,
* Pietro Verri, Alessandro Verri, a cura di Sara Rosini, ''Carteggio di Pietro e Alessandro Verri. 19 maggio 1792 – 8 luglio 1797'', Edizione Nazionale di Pietro Verri, 2008,
scheda online
* Pierre Musitelli, ''Le Flambeau et les ombres. Alessandro Verri, des Lumières à la Restauration (1741–1816)'', Rome, Collection de l’École française de Rome, vol. 512, 2016.
References
External links
* ttp://www.info.roma.it/monumenti_dettaglio.asp?ID_schede=2085 Palazzo Gentili Del Drago, in via San Nicola in Arcione, Roma
Villa Gentili-Dominicini, Roma
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verri, Alessandro
1741 births
1816 deaths
Writers from Milan
19th-century Italian historians
Italian dramatists and playwrights
Italian male dramatists and playwrights
Italian male non-fiction writers
People of the Age of Enlightenment