GROSSI, TOMMASO. - Poet, b. at Bellano (Como) on 23 Jan. 1790, d. on 10 Dec. 1853 in Milan, where he spent his whole life practicing the profession of notary.

He made his debut with the comedy in the Milanese dialect Giovanni Maria Visconti and with other compositions in the vernacular, among them La fuggitiva. But his greatest fame came from his Italian poetry (such as the novella in ottava rima L'Ildegonda [1820], the poem I Lombardi alla prima Crociata [1826], then again a novella in verse, Ulrico e Lida [1830-37]) and from the novel Marco Visconti (1834). Manzoni called him a «tender and powerful poet,» and G. was in fact an artist rich in sentimentality and ample in literary constructions, but weak in his inner depths, lacking in moral problems, though always sincere and limpid, especially in certain parts of the Visconti.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Editions: Le opere di T. G., Milano 1862. Studies: F. De Sanctis, Letteratura italiana nel sec. XIX, Napoli 1897, pp. 13-40; G. Brognoligo, T. G., Messina 1916; B. Croce, Una famiglia di patrioti e altri saggi storici e critici, Bari 1919, pp. 216-18; M. Chini, Le teorie dei romantici intorno al poema epico e i «Lombardi» di T. G., Lanciano 1920; E. Flori, Scorci e figure del Romanticismo, Milano 1938, pp. 33-161, 217-23, 287-93. For earlier studies, see A. Vismara, Bibliografia di T. G., Como 1881.

Giorgio Petrocchi

@incollection{ec6_grossi_tommaso, author = {Petrocchi, Giorgio}, title = {Grossi, tommaso}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1183}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/grossi-tommaso} }

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Grossi, Tommaso

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