Carlo Pepoli

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Count (Conte) Carlo Pepoli (born July 22, 1796 in Bologna , † December 7, 1881 ibid) was an Italian poet and librettist as well as a democrat and politician in the context of the Risorgimento .

Life and Political Work

The Italian patriot was a supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and took part in the revolutionary uprisings of the Italian Risorgimento , which broke out in central Italy in 1830/31 and which were just as quickly suppressed - mainly by Austrian troops. During the February Revolution of 1831 in Romagna , which called for national unity, a constitution and a parliament, he was sent to Pesaro and Urbino as prefect , but then had to flee to Ancona , where he was captured and brought to Venice . Like Mazzini, he first went into exile in Marseille , but then to Paris , where he met the most important intellectuals and worked as a journalist on Italian-language exile magazines. For a short time he served in a battalion of the French Foreign Legion in Algeria , which was commanded by the Italian officer and patriot Raffaele Poerio (1792-1853). He then went to London , where he held the chair of Italian literature and married the writer Elisabetta Fergus (presumably Elizabeth Fergus).

In 1848 Pepoli returned to Italy , where he initially participated in the national unification movement as commissioner for civil and military rights and a member of the newly proclaimed Roman Republic . In 1859 he was elected as a deputy of Finale and Mirandola to the regional council of Romagna and in 1862 appointed for life Senator of the Senato del Regno (d'Italia) , founded in 1861 and dissolved in 1946 . In the same year he was elected mayor of Bologna (his term of office began on January 11, 1862) - a position he held until the end of 1866.

From 1860 he taught philosophy and literature at the University of Bologna , one of the oldest universities in Europe, and was secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts (the Accademia di Belle Arti ). In 1863 he donated the Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio , an important humanistic and urban history library of the city, a collection of maps and architectural drafts from the Bolognese urban development, known as Cartella Giordani . This inventory , which was partially destroyed by the bombing and damage by the Allies in the fighting of the sinking German Reich at the end of World War II, still consists of 163 objects today. Pepoli also left numerous books and other writings to the Bologna library .

Literary work

During his brief stay in Paris, Pepoli wrote the libretto for Vincenzo Bellini's last opera I puritani ( The Puritans ), which premiered on January 24, 1835 at the Théâtre Italy in Paris . Bellini also set some of his sonnets ( La ricordanza , La speranza and Amore e Malinconia ) and the Sapphic Ode Alla luna to music . Also Gioachino Rossini has some of the poems Carlo Pepolis in his song cycle entitled Les soirées musicales set to music prominently (1830-1835) - especially the Neapolitan Tarantella La danza ( Già la luna è in mezzo al mare ) than vielgesungenes tenor song in interpretations of Enrico Caruso , Mario Lanza , Luciano Pavarotti and many others became known worldwide.

Pepoli wrote numerous works in prose and poetry and translated the Gospel according to Matthew into the Bologna dialect .

He was a close friend of the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi , who dedicated the story Al Conte Carlo Pepoli ( Canto XIX ) to him. Both were members of the Accademia dei Felsinei in Bologna .

(Carlo Pepoli is occasionally confused with a relative of the same name - probably a cousin or nephew - who married the singer Marietta Alboni in 1854 and died in 1866.)

literature

  • Mario Menghini: Carlo Pepoli ; in: Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti . Rome 1949, vol. 25, p. 713. ( online version at treccani.it )
  • Article Carlo Pepoli ; in: Dizionario dei bolognesi (Ed. Giancarlo Bernabei). Bologna 1989/90, Vol. 2, pp. 400-401.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pepoli, Carlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian poet, politician and librettist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1881
Place of death Bologna