Historical figure Ippolito Pindemonte

Born in: 1753  - Died in: 1828
Ippolito Pindemonte was an Italian poet and writer. A noble Veronese family, he studied in Modena at the College of Nobles of San Carlo and in Verona receiving a classic education. During his youth he performed the grand tour and traveled a lot in Italy (Rome, Naples and Sicily), France, Germany and Austria. This trip allowed him to discover the profound rift between theory and practice of the so-called "enlightened despots". His intent, however, was to flee from Verona and the inquisitorial climate that accused him of belonging to Freemasonry. There is no evidence of his membership of this organization. During the trip he wrote an autobiographical novel, "Abaritte - Storia verissima". Abaritte is Pindemonte himself, who uses pseudonyms to call people and places. In 1776 he took a trip on a sailboat to Sicily, Malta and Greece, alluded to verses 213/4 in the Fame of the sepulchers of Foscolo.
On November 2, 1779, the Pindemonte visited the Catacombs of the Capuchins of Palermo and was so deeply impressed by the inspiration of one of his poems. In the period of the French Revolution he was near Paris with Vittorio Alfieri: while appreciating the revolutionary ideals, the violence of Terror always countered the desire for peace in abandonment to the contemplation of nature. Under the influence of the English poet Thomas Gray and the Swiss poet Salomon Gessner, his poetry is neoclassical, with clear elements that are close to the new romantic sensibility. He received a prize from the Accademia della Crusca, of which he became a member. He died in 1828, a year after Ugo Foscolo, the poet who dedicated his famous opera Dei sepolcri to him, but with whom Pindemonte had a complicated relationship, mixed with coldness and admiration.
His most famous work is certainly the translation of the Odyssey, which had great success and numerous editions and reprints, despite not being able to convey the epic sense of the original. He was then the author of two similar collections for spirit and themes: Poesie campestri (first edition of 1788) and the Prose campestri (1794), in which the poetic of the Pindemonte is best expressed. He wrote the Epistles (1805) and the poetic sermons (1819); he was also the author of several tragedies, among which Arminio (1804), in which we note the influence of oxianic poetry. The poem The cemeteries was left unfinished by the author to the news that Foscolo was about to give prints of the sepulchres: he dedicated the poem to the Pindemonte. However, the year after the publication of the foscolo masterpiece, Pindemonte published a homonym cemetery Dei sepolcri, where the cemetery theme is treated on a more privately affective level, contrary to what Foscolo had intended to do with his civil poetry. He composed a dedicatory ode to the astronomer Antonio Cagnoli published on the text Astronomical News.
Pindemonte's poetics, albeit classicist, has a restlessness, a melancholy spirit and a closeness to sentimental themes, which at times bring it closer to the new romantic poetics: for this reason it was considered by the romantics a precursor.

Ippolito Pindemonte Visited places

Villa Mosconi Bertani

 Località Novare - 37024 Arbizzano di Negrar - Verona
Palace/Villa

Villa Mosconi Bertani, also known as Villa Novare, is a neoclassical Venetian villa dating back to the 18th century. The estate extends the extension of a previous complex of the sixteenth century... see

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Location for Ceremonies and Conferences, Park / Labyrinth / Pond / Garden, Shop / Historical Product, Wine Shop / Cellar / Estate

Time period
1700s

Where
Italy, Verona