Tommaso Grossi Lombard

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and novelist, was born in Bellano

Bellano

Bellano is a comune and small town on the eastern shore of Lake Como in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located at northern outlet of the Valsassina where the Pioverna forms a gorge before entering the lake....

, beside the Lake of Como.

He took his degree in law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at Pavia

University of Pavia

The University of Pavia is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 1361 and is organized in 9 Faculties.-History:...

 in 1810, and proceeded thence to Milan to exercise his profession; but the Austrian government, suspecting his loyalty, interfered with his prospects, and in consequence Grossi was a simple notary all his life. That the suspicion was well grounded he soon showed by writing the battle poem La Prineide (1814) in Milanese

Milanese

Milanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....

, in which he described with vivid colours the tragical death of Giuseppe Prina

Giuseppe Prina

Count Giuseppe Prina was an Italian statesman killed in the Milan riots of 1814.- Biography :Prina gave early evidence of his rare talent. After studying at the University of Pavia, he became a doctor of law in 1789...

, chief treasurer during the Empire, whom the people of Milan, instigated by Austrian agitators, had torn to pieces and dragged through the streets of the town (1814). The poem— subversive even in being an incunable of the surfacing Western Lombard dialect as a literary language

Western Lombard literature

This article is about literature written in Western Lombard .The Insubric poet Caecilius Statius came from Milan, capital city of Insubres, and wrote in Latin, being one of the best Latin comedians, with Plautus and Terence....

— being anonymous, was first attributed to the celebrated Carlo Porta

Carlo Porta

Carlo Porta was an Italian poet, the most famous writer in Milanese .-Biography:...

, but Grossi of his own accord acknowledged himself the author.
In 1816, he published other two poems, written likewise in Milanese— La Pioggia d'oro (The Shower of Gold) and La Fuggitiva (The Fugitive). These compositions secured him the friendship of Porta and Manzoni, and the three poets came to form a sort of literary triumvirate of Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

 in Lombardy. Grossi took advantage of the popularity of his Milanese poems to try Italian verse, into which he sought to introduce the moving realism which had given such satisfaction in his earliest compositions; and in this he was entirely successful with his poem Il degonda (1814).

He next wrote an epic poem, entitled The Lombards in the First Crusade, a work of which Manzoni makes honorable mention in I Promessi Sposi. This composition, which was published by subscription (1826), attained a success unequalled by that of any other Italian poem within the century; it provided the sdubject for Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's success of 1843, I Lombardi alla prima crociata

I Lombardi alla prima crociata

I Lombardi alla prima crociata is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi. Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843...

, premiered in Milan at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

. The example of Manzoni induced Grossi to write an historical novel entitled Marco Visconti (1834) a work which contains passages of true description and deep pathos. A little later Grossi published a tale in verse, Ulrico e Lida, but with this publication his poetical activity ceased.

In 1834, he helped organise the "Salotto Maffei", the liberal and patriotic literary salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 hosted by Clara Maffei

Clara Maffei

Elena Clara Antonia Carrara Spinelli was an Italian woman of letters and backer of the Risorgimento, usually known by her married name of countess Clara Maffei or Chiarina Maffei....

; there Verdi made his acquaintance. After his marriage in 1838 he continued to employ himself as a notary in Milan till his death.

His Life by Ignazio Cantù was published in Milan in 1853.