Life.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alfieri, Vittorio.

Contributor:

Doebler, Gianpiero W.

Series:

Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dramatists, Italian--18th century--Biography.

Dramatists, Italian.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (363 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2024.

Summary:

Lifepresents a first-hand, dramatic account of the privileged life and development of a literary mind in late eighteenth-century Europe from an Italian perspective.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title Page

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Translator's Note

Introduction

First Part

First Period - Childhood: Embracing nine years of vegetation

1. 1749 Birth and parentage.

2. 1752-5 Memories of childhood.

3. 1755-6 First symptoms of a passionate character.

4. 1757 Development of my nature, as indicated by various small matters.

5. 1757-8 Last youthful anecdote.

Second Period - Adolescence: Embracing eight years of bad manners

1. 1758 Departure from my mother's home and entrance into the Academy of Torino, and description thereof.

2. 1759 First studies: pedantic and badly done.

3. 1759 The relatives in Torino to whom my adolescence was entrusted.

4. 1760-1 Continuation of those non-studies.

5. 1762-3 Various silly events of the same sort as the previous.

6. 1763 Weakness of my complexion. Continuous infirmities and incapacity for any exercise (particularly dance) and why.

7. 1763 Death of my paternal uncle. My first freedom. Entrance into the First Apartment of the Academy.

8. 1764 Complete idleness. Setbacks encountered and tolerated with strength.

9. 1764 My sister's marriage. Reintegration of my honour. First horse.

10. 1765-6 First crush. First small journey. Entrance into the troops.

Third Period - Youth: Embracing about ten years of travel and dissoluteness

1. 1766 First travel: Milan, Florence, Rome.

2. 1767 Continuation of travels. Freeing myself from my tutor.

3. 1767 Continuation of travels. My first miserliness.

4. 1767 End of my travel in Italy. My first arrival in Paris.

5. 1767-8 First stay in Paris.

6. 1768 Journey to England and Holland. First difficulty in love.

7. 1769 Repatriated for half a year, I take up philosophical studies.

8. 1769-70 Second journey: to Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

9. 1770 Continuation of travels: Russia, Prussia once again, Spa, Holland, and England.

10. 1771 Second, very fierce love difficulties in London.

11. 1771 Horrible disappointment.

12. 1771-2 Resuming travel in Holland, France, Spain, and Portugal, and return to my country.

13. 1772 Shortly after returning to my country, I fall into my third love affair. First attempt at poetry.

14. 1773-4 Illness and reformation.

15. 1775 True freedom. First sonnet.

Fourth Period - Manhood: Embracing more than thirty years of composition, translation, and various studies

1. 1775 Conceiving and drafting the first two tragedies, Philip and Polynices, in French prose. In the meantime, a flood of the worst poetry.

2. 1776 Placing myself again under a tutor to construe Horace. First literary journey to Tuscany.

3. 1776-7 Persistence in the most thankless studies.

4. 1777 Second literary journey to Tuscany, marred by a foolish parade of horses. Friendship contracted with Gandellini. Work done or conceived in Siena.

5. 1777 Worthy love finally binds me forever.

6. 1777-8 Complete donation of everything of mine to my sister. Second miserliness.

7. 1778-80 Ardent study in Florence.

8. 1780-1 Misfortune through which I again see Naples and Rome, where I stay.

9. 1781-2 Studies ardently resumed in Rome. Completion of the first fourteen tragedies.

10. 1782-3 Performance of Antigone in Rome. Printing of the first four tragedies. Very painful separation. Trip through Lombardy.

11. 1783 Second printing, of six other tragedies. Various reviews of the four printed previously. Response to the letter from Calzabigi.

12. 1783-4 Third trip to England, solely for buying horses.

13. 1784 Brief stay in Torino. Auditory performance of Virginia.

14. 1784 Journey to Alsace. Seeing my lady again. Three new tragedies conceived. Unexpected death of my friend Gori in Siena.

15. 1785 Stay in Pisa. Writing the Panegyric to Trajan there, and other things.

16. 1785-6 Second trip to Alsace, where I settle. Conceiving and drafting the two Brutuses and Abel there. Heartily resuming studies.

17. 1787 Trip to Paris. Return to Alsace, after having arranged the printing of all nineteen tragedies with Didot in Paris. Very fierce illness in Alsace, where my friend Caluso had come to spend the summer with us.

18. 1787-9 Stay of more than three years in Paris. Printing of all the tragedies. At the same time, printing many other works in Kehl.

19. 1789-90 Beginning of the disturbances in France which, disturbing me in many ways, transform me from an author into a gossiper. My opinion on the present and future matters of this kingdom.

Second Part

Fourth Period (Continuation)

Brief Preface

20. 1790 Having completely finished the first batch of printed works, I devote myself to translating Virgil and Terence, and the end I make of it.

21. 1791 Fourth trip to England and Holland. Return to Paris, where we truly settle, forced to be there by harsh circumstances.

22. 1792 Flight from Paris. From there through Flanders and all of Germany. Returning to Italy, we settle in Florence.

23. 1792-5 Little by little, I restart my study. I finish the translations. I begin again to write a few little things of my own. I find a most charming house in Florence and I take up acting.

24. 1795-6 Curiosity and shame push me to read Homer and the Greek tragedians in literal translations. Tepid continuation of the satires and other minor things.

25. 1796-7 For what reason, how, and with what purpose I finally resolved to study the Greek language seriously on my own, from the beginning.

26. 1798 As a result of not waiting for my evening study of the Greek language, I write (I swear by Apollo for the last time) Alcestis II.

27. 1799 Misogallo finished. Poems concluded with the Teleutodia. Abel shortened, the same for the two versions of Alcestis and the Admonition. Weekly distribution of studies. Thusly prepared and equipped with tombstones, I await the invasion of the French, which follows in March 1799.

28. 1799 Activities in the country. The exit of the French. Our return to Florence. Letters of Colli. My pain upon hearing of the reprinting being prepared in Paris of my works in Kehl that were never made public.

29. 1800 Second invasion. Tiresome insistence of the literary general. Peace of a sort, through which my torments decrease considerably. Six comedies devised in one birth.

30. 1801-2 I draft the prose of the six comedies a year after having conceived them, and I versify them another year later. The one and the other of these two efforts with very grave damage to my health. I see the Abbot of Caluso again in Florence.

31. 1803 My intentions regarding this second batch of unpublished works. Tired and exhausted, I here put an end to all new undertakings. Fit more to undo than to do, I voluntarily exit the Fourth Period: Manhood, and at the age of 54½, I consider myself old after 28 years of nearly continuous inventing, versifying, translating, and studying. Childishly rendered proud for having almost overcome the difficulty of Greek, I invent the Order of Home, and make myself its á.ôï÷å.ñ Cavaliere.

Letter of the Abbot of Caluso, 1804: Added to conclude the work with a report on the death of the author

Appendices

Appendix A First Cleopatra - Bad Draft

Appendix B First Sonnet and Father Paciaudi's Letter.

Appendix C Colascionatas (Lute-Songs): First Colascionata, Second Colascionata, Third Colascionata

First Colascionata

Second Colascionata

Third Colascionata

Appendix D Second Cleopatra - First Act and Father Paciaudi's Letter

Father Paciaudi's Letter

Appendix E Third Cleopatra - As performed at the Teatro Italiano

Appendix F The Poets: A Comedy in One Act

Appendix G First Capitolo

Appendix H Letter from Alfieri to Caluso, describing the insurrection of 10 August 1792

Appendix I Alfieri's Greek letter to Caluso, with his translation

Appendix J Correspondence between Alfieri and Ginguené, 1798

Appendix K Alfieri's inscriptions for the tombstone of himself and the Countess of Albany, 1799

Appendix L Correspondence between Alfieri and his nephew, Marchese Colli, 1799-1800

Appendix M Correspondence between Alfieri and Caluso regarding membership in the National Institute in Torino, 1801

Index

Biographical Note.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781487556358

1487556357

OCLC:

1470853676