Giovanni Berchet

Giovanni Berchet.

Giovanni Berchet(Italian pronunciation:[dʒoˈvanniberˈʃɛ];23 December 1783 – 23 December 1851) was an Italian poet andpatriot.He wrote an influential manifesto on ItalianRomanticism,Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo,which appeared in 1816, and contributed toIl Conciliatore,a reformist periodical.

Berchet was born inMilan.He participated in various nationalist activities, including the revolutions that shook the Italian peninsula in 1821. Thereafter, he lived in exile, primarily inBritain,until returning to Italy to take part in the revolutions of 1848. His works includeIl trovatore,Il romito del Cenisio,and, most famously,I profughi di Parga(1821).

Lettera semiseria(Half-serious letter) presents thetranslations(written by Berchet) of two poems byGottfried August Bürgeras an example of a new kind of poetry, and expresses the author's thought about contents and language that can reach a new public: that is, no longer a public of academic readers, but the so-called "third class", i.e. the bourgeoisie, which is waiting for books that are interesting, full of real feelings, simple in language, withoutmythologyand classic models. This text took an important part in the debate over Romanticism that developed in Italy (specially inMilan) in the second decade of the 19th century.

Giovanni was the grandfather of the historianGuglielmo Berchet.

Further reading

• Bellorini, Egidio (1930).Giovanni Berchet, 1783-1851.Torino, Milano: Paravia.
• Croce, Benedetto(1924). "Berchet."In:European Literature in the Nineteenth Century.London: Chapman & Hall, pp. 167–181.
• Derla, G. (1968). "Poetica e Ideologia di G. Berchet,"Convivium,Vol. 36, pp. 293–308.
• Garofalo, Piero (2011). "Giovanni Berchet and Early Italian Romanticism,"Rivista di Studi Italiani,29.2, pp. 107–130.
• Gotti, Ettore Li (1933).G. Berchet, la Letteratura e la Politica del Risorgimento Nazionale, 1783-1851.Firenze: La Nuova Italia.

External links

• Works by Giovanni BerchetatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Giovanni BerchetatInternet Archive