TALAMINI, NATALE. - Priest, b. at Pescul (Belluno) on 25 Dec. 1808, d. there on 6 Apr. 1876.
He embraced the ecclesiastical state at a very young age and distinguished himself so greatly in his studies that he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the Seminary of Udine immediately after his ordination. He then moved to Venice, as a tutor in the Contarini household and a teacher in the public schools, while he brought out a whole collection of poems dedicated to the beauties of his Cadore. At the same time he was conspiring against Austria, and in 1849 he took part in the government of the Republic of Manin and Tommaseo.
After the fall of Venice, he withdrew to Cadore, but was arrested; he was later acquitted for lack of evidence. Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, later offered him the chance to resume teaching, but he preferred to live in dignified poverty in his native town, devoting himself to the care of souls, to poetry and to the promotion of Italian national feeling. When the war of 1866 broke out he organized the armed bands of Cadore to harass the Austrian rear lines behind the troops operating in the Quadrilateral and to hinder traffic between Austria and Venetia. When the war ended, his fellow countrymen elected him a deputy to Parliament, but political life was not for him, so he resigned his seat, taking up again his pastoral duties, his studies and his poetic pastimes. His valuable poems were collected in a volume between 1867 and 1897.
Bibliography4 works
Renzo U. Montini