GOZZI, GASPARO. - B. in Venezia on 4 Dec. 1713, d. in Padova on 25 Dec. 1786. A writer of classical refinement, of a classicism rich in human irony, even if often somewhat uniform in its attitudes, he is known above all for the Gazzetta veneta, the Osservatore, and Il mondo morale, which are collections of dialogues, monologues, and various moral reflections, marked by that acute attention to «les moeurs» of typically eighteenth-century flavour.
His gentle scepticism remains wholly on a literary plane. He deplores the harm caused by irrational fortune, inwardly desires to «vivere quetamente», but on the other hand feels the demands of the «cuore», shuns the «raison» that knows no virtue, respects the «fine delle santissime leggi», and, what matters most in the history of Italian spirituality, directly polemicizes against the Pyrrhonism of Pietro Bayle, against Enlightenment abstractionism, against «la vanità di voler comparire spirito forte».
A balanced sense of tradition led him to polemicize against the Lettere virgiliane of Saverio Bettinelli, the latter being an expression of an amused «esprit géométrique» wholly intent on anatomizing the Divina Commedia.