PE'LLICO, SILVIO, an Italian poet, celebrated for his long and cruel imprisonment by the Austrians, more, perhaps, than for his verses, was b. in 1788 at Saluzzo, in Piedmont, and was ,educated in Pignerol, where his father, Onorato Pellico, also favorably known as a lyric poet, had a silk-factory. In his 10th year he accompanied his sister Rosina (on her marriage) to Lyons, where he remained until Foscolo's Came de' Sepoleri awakened in him a strong patriotic feeling and an irresistible desire to return to Italy. Coining. about 1810, to Milan, where his family were now settled, he was warmly received by Ugo Foscolo and Vincenzo Monti, and was employed as tutor in the family of count Porno, in whose house all the most distinguished men in Milan were accustomed to meet. His tragedies of Laodamia and Francesca da Rimini gained hint an honorable name amongst Italian poets. He also translated ,the Manfred of Byron, with wlnim he hail become acquainted. lie lived in great intimacy with the most eminent patriots and authors of liberal views, and took an active part in a periodical called Il Coneiliatore, which, after a time, was suppressed, on account of its liberal tone. Having become con nected with the secret society of the Carbomiri, then the dread of the Italian government, Pellico was apprehended in 1820, and sent to the prison of Sta. Margherita, where his
friend, the poet Maroncelli, was also confined. In the beginning of the following year he was carried to Venice, and in Jan., 1822, to the prison on the isle of San Michele, near Venice; and Ma•oncelli and he were at last condemned to death; but the emperor commuted the sentence to 20 years' imprisonment for Maroncelli, and 15 years for Pellico. In Mar., 1812, they were both conveyed to the subterranean dungeons of the Spielberg. In Aug., 18:30, however, they were set at liberty. Pellico published an account of his sufferings during his ten years' imprisonment, under the title Le mie Prigioni (Paris, 1833), which has been translated into other languages, and has made his name familiar where it would not have been known on account of his poetry. Pellico's health, never robust, was permanently injured. The marchioness of Barolo received him into her house at Turin as her secretary. Pellico subsequently published numerous tragedies and other poems, and a little catechism on the duties of man. This death took place Jan. 31, 1851.