NICCOLINI, Giambattista. — Scholar, born at Bagni di S. Giuliano (Pisa) on 29 Oct. 1782, died at Florence on 20 Sept. 1861.
He was an academician of the Crusca. A republican in politics, he accepted the monarchy when he saw that Italian unity depended on it; but, faithful to a secular liberalism, he regarded the Neoguelf idea as utopian. His anti-papal stance is summed up in the *Annalo da Brescia* (1837), his masterpiece, though lacking historical foundation. NICCOLINI owes his fame less to posthumous works such as *Storia della Casa di Svevia in Italia* (1873) and *Il Vespro Siciliano* (1882) than to his tragedies, for which he drew his verse from classical models (*Polissena*, *Edipo nel bosco delle Eumenidi*, *Agamennone*, *Medea*), from history (*Antonio Foscarini*, *Giovanni da Procida*, *Lodovico Sforza*, *Arnaldo da Brescia*, *Filippo Strozzi*), and from romantic or sentimental episodes (*Matilde*, *Beatrice Cenci*). NICCOLINI’s theatre is more alive in the gravity and solemnity of its eloquence than in its inner dramatic power. The *Annalo da Brescia* was placed on the Index (decr. 15 Jan. 1844).