ARICI, CESARE. – Neoclassical poet, born on 12 June 1782 in Brescia, died in 1836. He was initially appointed to the criminal court, and later became professor of rhetoric and history at the Liceo. In the final years of his life he was also appointed secretary of the Ateneo of Brescia.
Highly praised by Monti and Giordani, he was renowned above all for his didactic poems: La coltivazione degli olivi, Il carollo, La pastorizia, L'origine delle fonti, ingenious and extraordinarily elaborate in form, but cold and devoid of poetic inspiration. He put his stylistic skill to the test by translating all of Virgil into versi sciolti and by pretending to translate from the Greek the Inni di Rocchille. These latter works were intended as a contribution to the anti-Romantic polemics that were then raging, in which he also took a direct part. Subsequently this attitude of his gradually softened, so much so that one can discern in him a certain evolution and a certain rapprochement with the Romantics, as appears from his poem in versi sciolti Il campanato di Brescia, from his sacred hymns, and from an epic poem of which he wrote only eleven cantos, La Gerusalemme distrutta.
His evolution, however, did not make his thought deeper or his feeling more intense; it remained an entirely external and stylistic experience. He began with Parini and Monti, but as other poets and other literary genres came into fashion, he gradually imitated them. For this reason, influences of Foscolo, Manzoni, and even Leopardi can be noted in his works; but just as the classical world was not relived, recreated, and adapted to the times by him, so the Bible and the inspiration he drew from it in his final years did not give him the strength to rise poetically to meditation and feeling that were genuinely religious.