Gabriele Rossetti was one of the earliest modern commentators on Dante Alighieri. In 1826, he published his Analytical Commentary on the Divine Comedy in London. While his studies are now considered outdated, they were deeply connected to a symbolic and political interpretation of Dante’s work. Upon rereading certain passages, it’s clear how much Rossetti was…
The monument to Gabriele Rossetti is crowned with four medallions, each bearing the likenesses of his children, whom he had during his exile with his wife Francesca Maria Lavinia Polidori, herself the daughter of another Italian exile, Gaetano Polidori, who had previously been the private secretary of Vittorio Alfieri. The inclusion of his children in…
Gabriele Rossetti was already well-known during his lifetime, but only within a small circle of Italian literati who regarded him as a symbol of the anti-papal struggle—particularly against Pope Pius IX. At the time, many saw Pius IX as a potential unifying figure for Italy, making Rossetti’s opposition all the more significant. In 1847, two…
Gabriele Rossetti spent his childhood and youth in Vasto until the age of 21, when, thanks to a recommendation from Count Wenceslaus Mayo—the father of a school friend and administrator of the d’Avalos estate in Vasto—he was welcomed in Naples by Marquis Tommaso d’Avalos, who financed his studies. With the arrival of the French in…
The Ciccarone family, originally from Scerni, arrived in Vasto in the wake of the feudal abolition and the gradual decline of d’Avalos’ holdings. Francesco Paolo Ciccarone was an ardent supporter of the short-lived Jacobin-inspired Neapolitan Republic and fought in Pescara under Ettore Carafa, who was later executed by King Ferdinand I in Naples. A committed…
Riccio de Parma was a knight who participated in the legendary Disfida di Barletta (Challenge of Barletta) on February 13, 1503, when 13 Italian champions faced off against 13 French soldiers. The challenge had arisen from insults a French commander had directed at Italian soldiers in the service of the Spanish crown, at a tavern…
Gabriele Rossetti’s prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was tied more to his political significance than to the actual readership of his works. Exiled in London, where he died in 1854, Rossetti had fled to escape a death sentence imposed by Ferdinand of Bourbon after the uprisings of 1821. His legacy became…