author
Francesco Dall'Ongaro
1808–1873
A poet, playwright, and journalist of the Italian Risorgimento, his work was closely tied to the political struggles of 19th-century Italy. He is especially remembered for blending literary ambition with a strong public voice.
1 Audiobook
Racconti
by Francesco Dall'Ongaro
About the author
Born in 1808 in Mansuè, in the Veneto, Francesco Dall'Ongaro became known as an Italian writer, poet, and dramatist. Sources agree that he was educated for the priesthood before turning away from that path and moving into journalism and literary life.
His career was closely linked to the Risorgimento. He worked in liberal journalism at Trieste, fought with Garibaldi in 1848, and took part in the Roman Republic of 1849, where he was also active in public and political writing. After the republic fell, he spent years in exile in Switzerland, Belgium, and France before eventually returning to Italy.
Alongside his political activity, he built a wide-ranging literary career as a poet, playwright, librettist, and prose writer. He died in Naples in 1873, and he is still remembered as one of those 19th-century Italian authors whose writing was inseparable from the turbulent national life around him.