LEA - Lingue e letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente, n. 6 (2017), pp. 79-98 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/LEA-1824-484x-22326 I Canti di Milosao di Girolamo De Rada1: storia e struttura del poema Francesco Altimari Università della Calabria (<
[email protected]>) Abstract The study deals with the complex and evocative history and genesis of De Rada’s first poem: Canti di Milosao. In the early nineteenth century historic scenario, in which Albania was reduced to a mere geographic expression within the Turkish-Ottoman Empire by centuries long oppressive foreign domination, the Italian-Albanian community (or Arbëreshë) brought about an important movement of “awakening” of identity, better known as the movement of the “Rilindja” (Rebirth). The leading exponent of this literary movement was the Calabri- an-Albanian Girolamo De Rada (1814-1903) who published in Naples in 1836 Canti di Milosao, when he was just twenty-two. The poem marks the entrance of Albanian literature into modernity and represents one of the highest literary expressions not only of Arbëresh (Italian-Albanian) literature and of Albanian literature but also of all European romantic literature. Keywords: Albanian Risorgimento, Arbëresh, Romanticism, Byronism, Calabrian Romanticism, the poetry of Girolamo De Rada 1 Girolamo De Rada (Macchia Albanese, 1814 – San Demetrio Corone, 1903), svolse gli studi medi e superiori nel Collegio italo-albanese di Sant’Adriano, a San Demetrio Corone, in Calabria, e quelli universitari a Napoli. Figura centrale della letteratura e della cultura arbëreshe dell’Ottocento e iniziatore della letteratura albanese moderna, Girolamo De Rada rappresenta una voce originale e paradigmatica della poesia romantica europea.