PARINI, GIUSEPPE (1729-1799), Italian poet, was born at Bosisio in the Milanese, on May 22, 1729. His parents, who possessed a small farm on the shore of Lake Pusiano, sent him to Milan, where he studied under the Barnabites in the Academy Arcimboldi, maintaining himself latterly by copying manuscripts. In 1752 he published at Lugano, under the pseudonym of Ripano Eupilino, a small volume of sciolto verse which secured his election to the Accademia dei Trasformati at Milan and to that of the Arcadi at Rome. In 1754 poverty drove him to take priest's orders, and he then obtained a place as tutor. 11 Mattino (1763), the first part of his 11 Giorno, gives ironical instructions to a young nobleman as to the best method of spending his mornings. It at once established Parini's fame, and two years later there followed 11 Mezzogiorno. The Austrian plenipotentiary, Count Firmian, appointed him editor of the Milan Gazette, and in 1769 to a specially created chair of belles lettres in the Palatine School.
Parini hoped for great things from the French Revolution, and on the French occupation of Milan he was appointed magistrate by Napoleon and Saliceti. Three years later he was dismissed. He then completed 11 Vespro and La Notte (published after his death), which with the two other poems already mentioned com pose 11 Giorno. The score of Odi, composed between 1757 and 1795, are among the classics of Italian poetry. Parini's scorn for the aristocratic society of his day and his independent char acter induced de Sanctis to speak of him as "the first man of the new Italy." He died at Milan on Aug. 15, 1799.