DI BREMÉ, LODOVICO ARBORIO GATTINARA

DI BREMÉ, LODOVICO ARBORIO GATTINARA. - Born in Turin in 1780, died there on 15 August 1820. Almoner to the Viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais, and Councillor of State in the first Kingdom of Italy; after Napoleon's fall, he retired into private life. He derived his vast culture from the most lively Italian thinkers and poets of the 18th century, as well as from the works of Mme de Staël, A. W. Schlegel, and Sismondi; his contacts with Byron and Stendhal were also fruitful. He arrived at his position of asserting absolute idealism through passionate refutation of sensism and rationalism, before the Romantic movement entered Italy; for this reason he was considered a precursor. He promoted the first Italian Romantic periodical (Il Bersagliere, later titled Il Conciliatore), for which he wrote numerous articles. He opposed deism, sensism, and atheism, which he regarded as the most unpoetic of states of mind.