NICCOLÒ TOMMASEO. – Writer and political figure, b. Šibenik 9 Oct 1802, d. Florence 1 May 1874. After completing his early studies at the seminary in Split, in 1817 he moved to Padua to study law, where he met Rosmini, with whom he formed an intimate yet troubled friendship, and broadened his culture by studying the major modern Italian and foreign philosophers and writers.
Between 1820 and 1822 he stayed alternately in Padua and Rovereto at Rosmini’s home, for brief periods in Šibenik and Venice. His restless, proud, irascible and combative temperament made it difficult for him to remain long in one place, and in 1822 bitter literary controversies drove him to move to Milan, where he met Manzoni and took part in the debate between Romantics and Classicists (v. ROMANTICISMO), writing in favour of the Romantic theses in the pamphlet *Il Perticari confutato da Dante* (1825) and various articles. In October 1823 he went to Florence at the invitation of G. P. Vieusseux to collaborate on the *Antologia*, which Vieusseux funded and directed. There he formed a very close friendship with Gino Capponi and took part in political life, adhering to Catholic liberalism and forming ties with Lambruschini, Lamennais and Montalembert. Already under police suspicion, when the *Antologia* was suppressed in March 1833, partly because of an article by him, he left for France, hoping to publish more easily his principal political work, *Dell’Italia*, which argued that the nation’s rebirth could not come through force of arms or conspiracies but through a renewal of consciences and of Christian religious life. His exile in France (1833–38, between Paris, Marseille, Nantes and Corsica) was a period of material poverty and spiritual suffering, marked also by moral bewilderment, for which the rest of his life was to be an expiation. In France he greatly expanded his linguistic and cultural knowledge, becoming an excellent writer in French, and there he composed or published several of his most important works: the books *Dell’Italia* (Paris 1835); the volume of poetry *Confessioni* (ibid. 1837); the historical novel *Il Duca d’Atene* (Paris 1837); the other novel *Fede e bellezza* (published in Venice in 1840, but written in Corsica); and the commentary on the *Divina Commedia* (also published in Venice in 1837). Returning to Italy at the end of 1839, taking advantage of an amnesty, after a short time he went to Venice, where he was caught up in the 1848 insurrection. In January he was imprisoned along with Daniele Manin for his patriotic writings and speeches, but was freed by the people and appointed by the provisional government Minister of Public Education and sent to France to seek aid from that government. Of republican sentiments, he resigned after the vote for the annexation of Venice to Piedmont, but did not abandon the struggle to defend the city. After Venice fell, he lived in exile in Corfu from 1849 to 1854, and in 1851 he married Diamante Pavello, a widow named Amale. When his residence there became difficult for various reasons, in May 1854 he moved with his family first to Turin and then, in 1859, to Florence, from where he never moved again, tirelessly occupied with literary work, and in particular with compiling his great *Dizionario della lingua italiana*, despite losing his sight in his final years.
Rich in virtues and vices, and more so in talent, T. is one of the most complex personalities of the 19th century. Among his fundamental traits is his religious faith, lived with intensity and intransigence, even if sometimes with overly personal accents and dangerous nuances (of his books, the *Studi filosofici* and *Roma e il mondo* were placed on the Index, decrees of 13 Sept and 20 Apr 1842). His intransigence and ardour led T. to judgments that were sometimes one-sided and unjust, both in the moral and political sphere and in the literary one. But the habit of viewing everything in the light of faith, of living continually in a religious atmosphere, gives all the details of his life a meaning and depth that make them elements of an exceptional spiritual experience. Connected with this is his habit of introspective inquiry and a singular knowledge of the psychology of sin, together with an original intuition of universal life and of the relations between the physical and the moral world: an intuition akin to that of the German Romantics and the Symbolists. From this inner life, rich though unharmonious, T.’s thought and art draw novelty and intensity of expression.
More than completed logical constructions, in T. one finds flashes, glimpses, presentiments. Especially noteworthy are many reflections of an aesthetic and linguistic character, often with a very modern flavour. In language T. sees the form of the inner man, and in its history the history of the human spirit. These principles inform all his philological activity, which in scope and complexity, knowledge of language, acuteness and sensitivity in interpreting it has no equal in our 19th century (besides the *Dizionario della lingua italiana*, of great importance is the *Dizionario dei sinonimi*). Linked to his philological activity is his critical work, which, although not supported by a unified method, finds its most original and successful expressions in stylistic observations. Also worthy of note are his numerous writings of moral and educational inspiration, such as those collected in *Dell’educazione* (Lugano 1836).
As a poet T. is among the most original of the 19th century. In many of his verses he conveyed his personal experiences, especially amorous ones, representing above all states of mind torn between friendship and love, voluptuousness and remorse, sensuality and piety (cf. *Voluttà e rimorso*, *Una serva*, *La contessa Matilde*), often in boldly realistic ways. In the second period of his life religious inspiration prevails, so that the poet’s imagination ranges across all creation, from the humble flower to the luminous stars, from the insect to the angelic beings, and everywhere finds correspondences and harmonies that merge into the supreme harmony which is God (cf. *I mondi*, *Gli spiriti*, *Le altezze*, *Pe’ morti*, etc.). New in its themes, rich in profound thoughts and delicate or grand and powerful images, T.’s lyric poetry is, however, often fragmentary.
In prose too, more than as a narrator or logician, T. is a lyric artist; the novel *Fede e bellezza* is largely autobiographical, and is valuable not so much for the construction of characters or the movement of the plot as for its lyrical-descriptive digressions, especially for impressions of nature captured in a highly sensitive, refinedly colouristic and musical language. It is also notable for its new and delicate psychological analyses, while from a moral point of view, despite the author’s intention to represent the expiation of sin through faith and suffering, the overall tone is rather uncertain.
T. also produced numerous excellent translations (cf. in particular those of the Illyrian and Greek folk songs and those of the Psalms and the Gospel).
— Studies: for his life, cf. R. Ciampini, Vita di N. T., Firenze 1945. On his thought and art in general: F. De Sanctis, La scuola liberale, lez. XIV (Op. complete, IV, Napoli 1933); P. Prunas, La critica, l'arte e l'idea sociale di N. T., Firenze 1901; M. Lazzari, L'animo e l'ingegno di N. T., Milano-Roma 1911; B. Croce, N. T., in La lettera della nuova Italia, I, Bari 1914; M. Apollonio, Fondazione della cultura ital. moderna, I, Firenze 1948, cap. VIII. On aesthetics, criticism, philosophy: G. A. Borgese, Stor. della critica roman. in Italia, Milano 1949 (1st ed., Napoli 1905), ch. IX and XII; F. Montanari, L'estetica e la critica di N. T., in Giorn. stor. della lett. ital., 98 (1931), pp. 1-72; A. Duro, Linguistica e poetica del T., Pisa-Roma 1942; A. Bonfatti, La dottrina dell'arte in N. T., Roma 1950. On his poetry: C. De Lollis, Un pensiero della forma; N. T., in Saggi sulla forma poetica ital. dell'Ottocento, Bari 1929, pp. 79-89; A. Vesin, N. T. poeta, Bologna 1914. On his prose: M. Puppo, T. prosatore, Roma 1948. For more specific guidance, cf. the bibliography by M. Puppo cited above.