Ugo Foscolo was an Italian writer and poet born in 1778 in Zakynthos, Greece. He was a key figure in the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism in Italian literature. Foscolo was enthusiastic about Napoleon's liberal ideas but became disillusioned when Napoleon ceded Venice to Austria. This disillusionment inspired his best-known work, The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, an epistolary novel written between 1798-1802 about a young man's political disillusionment and suicide. Foscolo spent his later years in exile in England, enjoying social circles but experiencing financial difficulties, until his death in 1827 near London.

1. UGO FOSCOLO
(pseudonym of Niccolò Foscolo)

2. He was born on 6th
February 1778
in Zakynthos-Greece
(Venetian Republic)
and he died on 10th
September 1827
near London.

3. He was a writer and a poet. His
poetry is neoclassical, but he is
considered also a romantic for his
patriotic ideals. His romantic
temperament and flamboyant life,
characterize his role as a key
transitional figure in the Italian
literary history. Concurrent with his
military exploits, Foscolo gave
literary expression to his ideological
aspirations and to the numerous
amorous experiences of these years.
The exciting and unhappy love, the
patriotic ideal, the exile and a tragic
death were a model of the
romantic hero and the principal
themes used by Foscolo.

4. Foscolo was very enthusiastic for Napoleon liberal ideas of
freedom and democracy, he lived the enthusiastic atmosphere of
the ascent to power of Napoleon and joined the French side
when the Austrians and Russians invaded Italy in 1799; he was a
captain in the Italian division. He was a prominent member of the
national committees, and addressed an ode to Napoleon
Bonaparte, expecting Napoleon to overthrow the Venetian
oligarchy and create a free republic. The intellectual track projects
of innovation policy and the patriotic ideals belonged only to the
educated classes and didn’t reach the masses, influenced by the
conservative views of the Church. Quickly he turned to
disillusionment when Napoleon ceded Venice to Austria in the
Treaty of Campoformio.

5. This disillusion together with the pain of
exile, inspired one of Foscolo's best works:
“Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis” (The last
letters of Jacopo Ortis), an epistolary
novel written between 1798 and 1802. In
this novel we can find some
autobiographical and didactic elements.
This novel is composed by letters written
by Jacopo to his friend Lorenzo Alderani.
In the letters we read the hopes for
liberation and the following strong
delusion for the renewed occupation of
the Italian soil. Jacopo went to live in a
small village up the hills in northern Italy,
near Padua, to escape from the political
persecution. Here he met Teresa and fell
in love with her. The impossibility of
realising his love led him to a further
delusion. The last chapter is the
description of the young man's last hours
and the suicide written by Lorenzo, thus
terminating his lonely struggle against
tyranny and hypocrisy.

6. Foscolo's vitality and unflagging quest for
freedom account for his immense
popularity during subsequent Italian
struggles for unification and
independence. Banished for his anti-French
drama Aiace (1811), Foscolo went to
Florence and after the fall of Venice he
moved to Milan, where he formed
friendship with many literary relevant
figures, until the entry of the Austrians; from
there he passed to Switzerland, where he
wrote a fierce satire in Latin on his political
and literary opponents; finally he sought
the shores of England at the close of 1816.
During the eleven years spent in London,
until his death there, he enjoyed all the
social distinction which the most brilliant
circles of the English capital confer to
foreigners of political and literary renown,
and experienced all the misery which
follows a poor domestic economy.

7. Other Foscolo’s important
works are “I Sepolcri” and
“Le Grazie”, characterized
by delicate musical and
plastic sensibility, they
represent Foscolo's best
lyric poetry.