MANZONI, ALESSANDRO, one of the most admired of modern Italian novelists, was born at Milan in 1784, of noble parents, his father being count Manzoni, and his mother the gifted daughter of the great savan marquis Beccaria. From a youth, the literary predilections of Manzoni gave good promise of his after mental development. In 1806, at the age of 21, his essay on poetry, entitled Versi Sciolti, NV8S inspired by the death of Carlo Imbonati, an intimate family friend; and in 1810 his sacred lyrics met with general admiration. Several tragedies, written with much spirit and originality, attracted notice not only in Italy, but in France and Germany; and foremost amid the warm admirers and favorable critics of Manzoni stood Goethe. The work, however, by which Manzoni attained to European fame is his historical novel, I Promessi Sposi—a Milanese story of the 17th c., translated into German, English, French, and other tongues—(3 vols. Milan,
1827), by which a new era may be said to have been created in the fictitious literature of his country. The tale abounds in interesting sketches of national and local Italian cus toms and modes of life, portrayed with unflagging spirit and humor, while various grave historical events are narrated with force and grandeur of style, especially the episode of the plague in Milan. Manzoni's ode to Napoleon (1823) is noble in thought and diction. The poet's later years were spent in strict and devout seclusion, the free tendency of his early opinions having been succeeded by a stringent conformity to the doctrines of Rome. A complete edition of Manzoni's works, in 5 vols., was published by Tommasco in Flor ence (1828-1829). He died in 1873.