LAST LETTERS OF JACOB ORTIS, 'Mime lettere di Jacopo Ortis' (1802), the most significant prose work of the Italian poet, Ugo Foscolo, is an autobiographical novel in epistolary form. Begun in 1798 when the au thor was a mere boy of 20 the history of this book is a romance in itself. Published in un finished form in 1799, continued for an im patient editor by the unscrupulous Angelo Sas soli whose unauthorized edition was repudiated by Foscolo when he brought out his true text in 1802, the "(Ultime lettere' shows the influence of Rousseau's 'Nouvelle Helois0 and still more of Goethe's (Werther.' Like its German predecessor which antedated it by a quarter of a century, Foscolo's narrative reflects the pes simism, the unhealthy sentimentalism and the excessive morbidness of that period of social and political upheaval. The suicide in 1796 of Girolamo Ortis, a fellow student at the versity of Pavia, Foscolo's unhappy love af fairs, the Treaty of Campo Formic) (17 Oct. 1797) by which Austria acquired Venice and which caused the poet's departure from his adopted state, became the genesis of these let ters which so deeply stirred the patriotic ardor of the Italian youth of the succeeding genera tion. An' exile from Venice, Ortis (Foscolo), iti a series of letters to his friend Lorenzo (G. B. Niteolini), laments his country's servi
tude and gradually lays bare his hapless pas Sion for the lovely Teresa, the affianced and later the bride of another. This correspondence rims from October 1797 until March 1799, when the wretched youth stabs himself to death after writing an affecting farewell to Teresa. Such scenes as the meeting between Ortis and the aged poet Parini, the incident of the kiss, the final parting with Teresa and some splendid de scriptions of nature, are full of feeling. The language, while not exempt from affectations, is a robust, eloquent and animated poetic prose. Although the intermingling of the patriotic mo tive with the love idyll weakens the unity of the work, the loss in artistic effectiveness is compensated by the intense passion for liberty that animates Ortis. It is the first modern Italian novel of incontestable merit and the harbinger of the romantic movement in Italy. Consult Martinetti and Antona-Traversi for a critical edition of the text (Saluzzo 1887); Al bertazzi, A. (II Romano' (Milan 1902) ; Maz zoni, G., (L'Ottocento' (Milan 1913) ; Marmon, E., . . . di Ugo Foscolo' (Milan 1913).