MANZONI, ALESSANDRO FRANCESCO TOM MASO ANTONIO Italian poet and novelist, was born at Milan on March 7, 1785. He was descended on his father's side from the feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina; his mother was the daughter of Cesare Beccaria (q.v.). Manzoni was educated at various schools, the last being the Barnabiti School in Milan. In 1805, he accompanied his mother to Paris, where he mixed in the literary set of the so-called "ideologues," and imbibed the negative creed of Voltairianism. The fervent Catholicism which coloured his later life only developed after his marriage. In 1806-07, he published two pieces, one entitled Urania, in the classical style, the other an elegy in blank verse, on the death of Count Carlo Imbonati, his mother's lover, who left him considerable property, including the villa of Brusuglio.
He married in 1808 Henriette Blondel, daughter of a Genevese banker, and led for matey years a retired life, divided between lit erature and his farm in Lombardy. To this period belong his lnni sacri, a series of sacred lyrics, and a treatise on Catholic morality. In 1818 he had to sell his paternal inheritance, as his affairs had gone to ruin in the hands of a dishonest agent. He cancelled on the spot the record of all sums owing to him by the peasants, and gave them the whole of the coming maize harvest.
In 1819 Manzoni published his first tragedy, 11 Conte di Car magnola, which boldly violated all classical conventions, and was severely criticized in the Quarterly Review, in an article to which Goethe replied in its defence, "one genius," as Count de Guber natis remarks, "having divined the other." The Piedmontese revolution of 1821 inspired Manzoni's Marzo, 1821, but under Austrian rule the publication of the poem was impossible. It only appeared in 1848. On the death of Napoleon he wrote the famous ode 11 cinque Maggio (circulated at first in ms. and printed in 1822) which Goethe declared to be the greatest of the many which celebrated that event. Manzoni also wrote at this time the trage dies 11 conte del Carmagnola (1820) and Adelchi (1822), in which he broke loose from the classical convention.
He then turned to the form which gave his genius full scope. Round the episode of the Innominato, historically identified with Bernardino Visconti, the romantic novel I Promessi sposi began to grow into shape; it was completed in Sept. 1822, published in 1825-27, and at once raised its author to the first rank of literary fame. It was translated into many languages, but it was his last considerable work. Manzoni laboriously revised I Promessi sposi in the Tuscan idiom, and in 1840 republished it in that form, with La Storia della Colonna infame.
Manzoni's sons took part in the Five Days revolt in Milan in The Austrians did not molest him, but he declined all hon ours until after the Liberation when he became a senator.
The end of his life was saddened by domestic sorrows. The loss of his wife in 1833 was followed by that of several of his children, and of his mother. In 1837 he married his second wife, Teresa Borri, widow of Count Stampa, whom he also survived, while of nine children born in his two marriages all but two predeceased him. The death of his eldest son, Pier Luigi, on April 28, 1873, was the final blow; he fell ill immediately, and died of cerebral meningitis, on May 22. His remains, after lying in state for some days, were followed to the cemetery of Milan by a vast cortege, including the royal princes and all the great officers of state. But his noblest monument was Verdi's Requiem, specially written to honour his memory.
See his Opere Complete (7 vols., 1905 seq.) ; his correspondence (ed. G. Sforza 2 vols. further correspondence, Lettere ined ite (ed. E. Grecchi 2nd ed. 190o) ; A. Galletti, A. Manzoni, 11 pensatore e it poeta, 2 vols. (Milan, 1927) ; A. Piccmati, La vita et le opere di A. Manzoni (1886) ; A. Pellizzari, Studi Manzoniani 2 vols. (Naples, 1914) ; G. Gentile, Dante e Manzoni (Florence 1923) ; F. de Sanctis, Manzoni (Bari 1922) ; A. Stoppani, / primi e gli ultimi anni di A. Man zoni (Milan 1923).