Giuseppe Parini (May 23, 1729 – August 15, 1799) was an Italian enlighted satirist and poet of the neoclassic period.[1]
Parini was born in Bosisio (later rechristened Bosisio Parini in his honour) in Lombardy. His parents, who possessed a small farm on the shore of Lake Pusiano, sent him to Milan, where he studied under the Barnabites in the Academy Arcimboldi, maintaining himself in the meantime by copying manuscripts.
In 1752, he published at Lugano, under the pseudonym of "Ripano Eupilino," a small volume of selected verses, Alcune poesie, which secured his election to the Accademia dei Trasformati at Milan, as well as to the Accademia dell'Arcadia at Rome. His poem, Il Giorno (The Day, 1763), consisting of ironic instructions to a young nobleman as to the best method of spending his mornings, marked a distinct advance in Italian blank verse. It at once established Parini's popularity and influence, and two years later a continuation of the same theme was published under the title of Il Mezzogiorno.
The Austrian plenipotentiary, Count Firmian, interested himself in procuring the poet's advancement, appointing him in the first place as editor of the Milan Gazette, and in 1769, in despite of the Jesuits, to a specially created chair of belles lettres in the Palatine school. On the French occupation of Milan he was appointed magistrate by Napoleon and Aurelio Saliceti, but almost immediately retired to resume his literary work and to complete Il Vespro and La Notte (published after his death), which, with two other poems already mentioned, compose what is collectively entitled Il Giorno. Among other poems his rather artificial Odi, composed between 1757 and 1795, have appeared in various editions. He was associated with the Accademia della Crusca.
Parini's work was accepted by younger poets mainly as a lesson in morality and freedom of thought. Ugo Foscolo, who met Parini in Milan, portrayed him as a serious, dignified person in Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis and accused the rich and corrupt town which had forgotten him, in Dei sepolcri.
He died in August 1799. A statue of the poet occupies a place of honor in Milan's busy Piazza Cordusio. Although his family still lives on, continuing the name to this day.
References
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"Giuseppe Parini". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Giuseppe_Parini.
Further reading
- ——, and Herbert Morris Bower. The Day Morning, Midday, Evening, Night : a Poem. Westport, Conn: Hyperion Press, 1978. ISBN 0883555921
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