Editing Giosuè Carducci (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Giosuè Carducci1.jpg|right|thumb|Giosuè Carducci c. 1870]]
He was born in Valdicastello in [[Pietrasanta]], a small town currently part of the [[Province of Lucca]] in the northwest corner of [[Tuscany]], which at the time was [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|an independent grand duchy]]. His father, a doctor, was an advocate of the unification of Italy and was involved with the [[Carbonari]]. Because of his politics, the family was forced to move several times during Carducci's childhood, eventually settling for a few years in [[Florence]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Carducci, Giosuè|volume=5}}</ref>

From the time he was in school, he was fascinated with the restrained style of [[Greek Antiquity|Greek]] and [[Roman Antiquity]], and his mature work reflects a restrained classical style, often using the classical meters of such Latin poets as [[Horace]] and [[Virgil]]. He translated Book&nbsp;9 of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' into Italian.

Carducci was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious [[Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa]]. After graduating in 1856, he began teaching school. The following year, he published his first collection of poems, ''Rime''. These were difficult years for Carducci: his father died, and his brother committed suicide.

In 1859, he married Elvira Menicucci, and they had four children. He briefly taught Greek at a high school in [[Pistoia]] and then was appointed Professor of Italian Literature at the [[University of Bologna]]. Here, one of his students was [[Giovanni Pascoli]], who became an eminent poet himself and later succeeded him at the university.

Carducci was a popular lecturer and a fierce critic of literature and society. In his youth he was an atheist,<ref>Biagini, Mario, ''Giosuè Carducci'', Mursia, 1976, p. 208.</ref> whose political views were vehemently hostile to the Catholic Church. In the course of his life, his views on religion shifted towards a socially oriented [[theism]] which he exposed in his famous "Discorso sulla libertà perpetua di [[San Marino]]" ("A Speech on San Marino's Perpetual Freedom"), pronounced on 30 September 1894 before the authorities and people of that ancient Republic and celebrating "the Universal God of Peoples, Mazzini's and Washington's God".<ref>[https://www.liberliber.it/mediateca/libri/c/carducci/la_liberta_perpetua_di_san_marino/pdf/carducci_la_liberta_perpetua.pdf Carducci la liberta perpetua] liberliber.it</ref>

His anti-clerical revolutionary vehemence was prominently showcased in one famous poem, the deliberately blasphemous and provocative {{ill|Inno a Satana|it|A Satana|quote=y}} ("Hymn to Satan"). "Satan" / "Lucifer" was considered by Italian leftists of the time as a metaphor for the rebellious and freethinking spirit. The poem was composed in 1863 as a dinner party toast, published in 1865, and then republished in 1869 by Bologna's radical newspaper, ''Il Popolo'', as a provocation timed to coincide with the [[First Vatican Council]], a time when revolutionary fervour directed against the papacy was running high as republicans pressed both politically and militarily for an end to the Vatican's domination over the [[papal states]].<ref>''Carducci, Giosuè, Selected Verse/ Giosuè Carducci: edited with a translation, introduction and commentary by David H. Higgins'', (Aris & Phillips; Warminster, England), 1994. See also: Bailey, John Cann, ''Carducci'' The [[Taylorian Lecture]] (Clarendon Press, Oxford) 1926.</ref>

While "Inno a Satana" had quite a revolutionary impact, Carducci's finest poetry came in later years. His collections ''Rime Nuove'' (''New Rhymes'') and ''Odi Barbare'' (''[[Barbarian Odes]]'') contain his greatest works.<ref>One prominent English translation is ''The Barbarian Odes of Giosuè Carducci'', translated from Italian by William Fletcher Smith, (Manasha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Co., 1939). The translation is reviewed in {{cite journal
 | last = Dismukes
 | first = William Paul
 | title = ''The Barbarian Odes of Giosuè Carducci'' by William Fletcher Smith
 | journal = Italica
 | volume = 17
 | issue = 1
 | pages = 29–30
 | date = March 1940
 | doi = 10.2307/475605
 | jstor = 475605
 }}
</ref>

He was the first Italian to receive the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], in 1906. He was also appointed senator by the King of Italy (1890).<ref>{{cite book|last=Scalia|first=Samuel Eugene|title=Carducci|publisher=S.F. Vanni|location=New York|year=1937}}</ref> In politics he remained a strong [[liberalism|Liberal]] throughout his life; through the years he progressively evolved from republicanism to a sort of support to constitutional monarchy.<ref name="Bickersteth">{{cite book |last1=Bickersteth |first1=Geoffrey Langdale |title=Carducci |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924027533805 |date=1913 |publisher=Longmans, Green |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924027533805/page/n39 14]}}</ref> He was a [[Freemason]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gilbert |first1=Sari |title=Freemasonry in Italy Has Had 2 1/2 Centuries of {{sic|Contro|vesy|hide=y}} |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/06/02/freemasonry-in-italy-has-had-2-12-centuries-of-controvesy/800d7499-43d2-4366-9508-24cc83128811/ |access-date=28 July 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=2 June 1981}}</ref> of the [[Grand Orient of Italy]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.grandeoriente.it/che-cosa-e-la-massoneria/massoni-celebri/|title=Notable Italian Freemasons|accessdate=25 April 2024|archive-date=1 October 2015|archive-url=https://archive.today/20151001081206/http://www.grandeoriente.it/che-cosa-e-la-massoneria/massoni-celebri/|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> His father Michele, a physician, was also a member of the Italian [[Carbonari|Carboneria]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.iltirreno.it/versilia/cronaca/2023/11/22/news/cosi-l-impronta-della-massoneria-ha-segnato-l-ex-perla-del-tirreno-1.100426109|title=Versilia, così l'impronta della Massoneria ha segnato l'ex Perla del Tirreno|author=Adolfo Lippi|date=November 22, 2023|language=it}}</ref> Although his reputation rests primarily on his poetry, he also produced a large body of prose works.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tomasin|first=Lorenzo|title="Classica e odierna". Studi sulla lingua di Carducci|publisher=Olschki|location=Florence|year=2007}}</ref> Indeed, his prose writings, including literary criticism, biographies, speeches and essays, fill some 20 volumes.<ref>{{cite book|title=Selections from Carducci; Prose and Poetry with introduction, notes and vocabulary by A. Marinoni|publisher=William R. Jenkins|location=New York|year=1913|pages=vii–ix|no-pp=true}}</ref> Carducci was also an excellent translator and translated some of [[Goethe]] and [[Heinrich Heine|Heine]] into Italian.

The [[Museum of the Risorgimento, Bologna]] is housed in the Casa Carducci, the house where he died at the age of 71, and contains an exhibit on the author.