Rivista Di Studi Italiani 65 Contributi Giovan Battista
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RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI CONTRIBUTI GIOVAN BATTISTA NICCOLINI’S LITERARY AND POLITICAL ROLE IN THE RISORGIMENTO PIERO GAROFALO University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire iovan Battista Niccolini was one of the most renowned Italian dramatists of the nineteenth century, but since the early 1900s critical Gand popular interest in his literary production has steadily diminished. His tragedies appealed to the ideals associated with national unification and with the Risorgimento culture because they reiterated the necessity of resisting tyranny in the cause of freedom. Extravagantly praised during his lifetime, Niccolini was buried alongside some of Florence’s most famous citizens in the church of Santa Croce. A funeral monument sculpted by Pio Fedi was added in 1883, to commemorate his literary achievements. The son of Ippolito and Settimia da Filicaja, Giovan Battista was born in Bagni di San Giuliano (today, San Giuliano Terme) near Pisa on 29 October 1782. His father, a nobleman of the Counts of Camugliano, was somewhat of an anglophile so English comprised part of Niccolini’s cultural formation. Ippolito served in the Palazzo Pretorio as a government representative of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His mother was also a descendant of a patrician Florentine family. As a child and throughout his life, Giovan Battista was timid and frail, more interested in intellectual activities than physical ones. In 1786, the family moved to Florence where Niccolini frequented the Scolopi School in Florence. He studied under the guidance of Angelo D’Elci (1754-1824) and Giovanni Battista Zannoni (1774-1832). He began to learn Greek in 1796, and quickly developed a passion for classical studies. Latin, Greek, and the ideals of the French Enlightenment formed the foundation of his intellectual development. One of his first compositions, Grandi italiani in Santa Croce (Great Italians in Santa Croce) reveals the influence of Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) on his poetic formation. While pursuing his secondary studies, he discovered that the Collegio della Sapienza in Pisa had seven vacancies. Despite the family’s aristocratic lineage, Niccolini’s financial resources were limited therefore he appealed to Ferdinando III for permission to study law at the Collegio della Sapienza free of charge. The Grand Duke 65 GIOVAN BATTISTA NICCOLINI’S LITERARY AND POLITICAL ROLE IN THE RISORGIMENTO granted his request on the condition that Niccolini pass the entrance exam, which he did. On 14 September 1798, he was admitted to the University of Pisa. At this time, the political situation in the Italian peninsula was rapidly evolving. The Grand Dukes of Tuscany descended from the House of Lorraine, a junior line of the Habsburgs. When Napoleon invaded the Grand Duchy in the spring of 1796, Tuscany and France were still formerly at peace. Napoleon quickly gained control of the region, but French troops did not enter Florence until March 1799. The Grand Duke’s exile, however, was brief because in the early summer of 1799, Austrian and Russian forces defeated the French in Italy and restored Ferdinando III to power. One of the Grand Duke’s first actions was to order the closings of the Universities of Pisa and Siena in order to convert them temporarily into military barracks. Niccolini was an ardent republican and he protested the return of Austrian domination and the suspension of classes. Because of his activities, he was briefly imprisoned in 1799. General Dupont repealed the ordinance in 1800, and classes resumed. After Napoleon’s victory at Marengo on 14 June 1800, the French re-occupied Florence on 15 October 1800. Despite his firm anticlerical republican position, Niccolini never engaged actively in politics again. His maternal uncle Alemanno da Filicaja, an aristocrat of Jacobin opinions, was instrumental in the articulation of Niccolini’s political ideals, as was the poet Giovanni Fantoni (1755-1807) and the dramatist Francesco Benedetti (1785-1821) whose acquaintances he had made while studying in Pisa. Another influential figure in the raising of Niccolini’s political consciousness was Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), whom Niccolini had befriended during one of the poet’s visits to Florence in 1799. The two youths had much in common and took an immediate liking to each other. Later, critics assumed that Foscolo modeled the figure of Lorenzo Alderani in Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; translated by Douglas Radcliff-Umstead as Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1970) on his young friend, although this appears unlikely. Niccolini’s acumen impressed Foscolo who wrote him a generous dedication in both Poesie di Ugo Foscolo and the translation La chioma di Berenice in 1803. They saw each other frequently in Florence in 1812, but had a slight falling out after Foscolo’s exile in 1813, because Niccolini mistakenly thought his friend had capitulated to the Austrians. After completing his law degree at the University of Pisa in June 1803, Niccolini returned to Florence where his family was suffering economic duress. Although he harbored literary aspirations, his family’s precarious financial condition impelled him toward a legal career. Alemanno da Filicaja interceded on his behalf and appealed to the Grand Duchess, who offered him a modest clerical position at the Archivio delle Riformagioni with a monthly stipend of fifteen scudi on 14 July 1803. While subsisting in this employment, 66 PIERO GAROFALO he translated the Versi d’oro (Golden Words) attributed to Pythagoras and composed the poem La Pietà (Mercy) on the pestilence in Leghorn in the fall of 1804. That same year he visited Venice and Milan with Gaetano Capponi and met Melchiorre Cesarotti (1730-1808) and Vincenzo Monti. Two years later, he was awarded the honor of delivering the lecture “Sulla somiglianza la quale è fra la pittura e la poesia, e dell’utilità che i pittori possono trarre dallo studio dei poeti” (On the Similarities between Painting and Poetry and the Utility that Painters Can Draw from Studying Poets) to the Accademia di Belle Arti at the awards ceremony for the Triennial competition in 1806. In his talk, he shows the affinities between the poetic and plastic arts and defends the need for writers to imitate past literary models. On 5 September 1807, after four years at the Archivio, Niccolini replaced Tommaso Puccini as secretary at the Accademia di Belle Arti where he also served as librarian. In 1809, he delivered another lecture to the Accademia: “Quanto le arti conferir possano all’eccitamento della virtù e alla sapienza del viver civile” (How Much the Arts Can Confer toward the Incitement of Virtue and the Wisdom of Civil Life). In this discussion, he defends the arts from the accusation that their sole purpose is to provide pleasure. Later, he also served as preceptor to the court page-boys of Napoleon’s sister, Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte whom the Emperor had made Grand Duchess in 1809. He became a member of the Accademia della Crusca in 1812, and served on the commission that revised the fifth edition of the Academy’s dictionary in 1843. Throughout his career, he delivered lectures at both the Accademia di Belle Arti and the Accademia della Crusca on literature, art, philosophy, and language. In 1810, Niccolini met Mario Pieri (1776-1852) in Florence and their close friendship endured until the latter’s death. That same year, the Accademia della Crusca awarded Niccolini a prize of 500 Napoleoni for his five-act tragedy Polissena (Polyxena) modeled on Euripides’ Hecuba, but influenced by Foscolo’s poetics. He published it in 1811, and the play premièred at the Teatro della Pallacorda in Florence on 15 January 1813. Because of the positive public and critical response, Polissena traveled quickly to other major Italian cities and helped establish its author’s reputation. The tragedy is classical in its presentation. Niccolini departs from Euripides and imagines that after the fall of Troy, Polissena, the daughter of Ecuba (Hecuba) and Priamo (Priam), is given to Pirro (Pyrrhus) with whom she has fallen in love. Cassandra, another of Ecuba’s daughters is taken by Agamennone (Agamemnon). For some reason, the Greeks are unable to depart. Ulisse (Odysseus) asks Calcante for an explanation and discovers that the gods demand a sacrifice: one of Priamo’s daughters. Agamennone and Pirro refuse to kill their slaves. Ulisse decides that Ecuba must draw the name from an urn, but Polissena, who in the meantime has discovered that Pirro 67 GIOVAN BATTISTA NICCOLINI’S LITERARY AND POLITICAL ROLE IN THE RISORGIMENTO killed her father, offers herself. Pirro tries to intervene and kill Calcante, but Polissena throws herself on Pirro’s blade and dies. In 1813, he obtained a post as professor of history and mythology at the Accademia di Belle Arti. Following this appointment, he found himself increasingly isolated from his colleagues and students because he was not responsive to the cultural and didactic needs of the institution. His lectures were not well attended. With the restoration of Ferdinando III in 1814, Niccolini also assumed the duties of private librarian for the Grand Duke between 1814 and 1815. During this same period, he composed another tragedy: Ino e Temisto (1814). The play, however, was not staged until 16 February 1824 at the Teatro Nuovo – what used to be the Teatro della Pallacorda – in Florence, and was not published until 1825. The confusing plot made both stagings and readings of Ino e Temisto difficult to follow. After its première, Niccolini modified the text and wrote an explanatory essay prior to submitting it for publication. Ino e Temisto is a complex tragedy that was not well received by either the critics or the public. Cadmo, the founder and king of Thebes, is exiled. His son-in-law Atamante assumes the throne and exiles Cadmo’s daughter Ino because he wants to marry Temisto, the widow of the king of Thessaly.