GROSSI, TOMMASO. - Poet, b. at Bellano (Como) on 23 Jan. 1790, d. on 10 Dec. 1853 in Milan, where he spent his entire life practising as a notary.
He made his debut with the comedy in the Milanese dialect Giovanni Maria Visconti and with other compositions in the vernacular, including La fuggitiva. But his greater fame came from Italian poetry (such as the ottava-rima tale L'Ildegonda [1820], the poem I Lombardi alla prima Crociata [1826], and later another verse tale, Ulrico e Lida [1830-37]) and from the novel Marco Visconti (1834). Manzoni called him a “tender and powerful poet,” and G. was indeed an artist rich in sentiment and broad in literary constructions, but weak in his innermost being and lacking in moral problems, though always sincere and lucid, especially in certain parts of the Visconti.