Aleardo Aleardi

Aleardo Aleardi (born Gaetano Maria) (November 14 1812-July 17 1878) was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called Neo-romanticists.

Aleardo was born in Verona in 1812, and took an active part in the movement of the Risorgimento. In 1848 he went to Paris, invited by Manin, to garner support for the Venetian Republic. He was arrested twice: at Mantova in 1852 and at Josephstadt in Bohemia in 1859. He then worked as deputy, senator, and finally as professor of aesthetics at Florence, where he died in 1878.

Poetry

His poetic work is not extensive, and mostly revolves around the themes of history and the fatherland. He was in fact called the poet of history because of his tendency to research and relive the past, also the distant past of prehistory and the mythical infancy of the earth ("Il monte Circello" (Circello mountain), 1856 and "Le prime storie" (The first stories), 1857). However, one often finds that this nostalgia for the past is, more often than not, a pretext to display his eloquence.