DA PONTE, LORENZO. — Scholar, b. at Ceneda (Belluno) in 1749. A Jew, he was baptized by Bishop Da Ponte, who had taken him in out of charity and whose name he assumed. For expedience, he entered the ecclesiastical career (1773). Owing to his dissolute life he was forced to flee from Venice and later was expelled from Austria, where he had been court poet and had written the libretti for Mozart’s *Le nozze di Figaro*, *Don Giovanni*, and *Così fan tutte*. Thenceforth he wandered through England and America, where he spread Italian culture. His *Memorie* (1829–30) reveal him as one of those adventurers of the late eighteenth century whose fundamental genius was stifled by a lack of moral sense and the restlessness of his life. Some religious Psalms betray his spiritual poverty. Reconciled with the Church in New York in 1838.
DA PONTE, LORENZO
BIBL.: Works: *Memorie*, ed. G. Gambarin and F. Niccolini, Bari 1918; Studies: J. L. Russo, *L. Da P.*, New York 1922; U. Liberatore, *L. Da P. scrittore*, in *Profili storici*, Rome 1936 (v. index).