VARANO, Alfonso. – Writer, born in Ferrara on 13 Dec. 1705, died there on 18 June 1788.
A pupil of Abbot Tagliazucchi at the Modena College of Nobles, he devoted himself to literary studies and poetry, in which he pursued clear moral aims within a Christian vision of history. In his *Rime* he imitated now Petrarch, now Berni; in his *Eloghe* Virgil and Theocritus; but in his *Visioni*, twelve cantos in terza rima, he drew inspiration from the Bible and Dante’s *Divine Comedy*, modernly reproposing theological and philosophical questions and celebrating the grandeur of Christian Mysteries against Voltaire, who had denied the possibility of living poetry to Christianity. For the theatre he wrote: *Demetrio*; *Saeba regina di Ginge* and *Di Taniorre*; *Agnese martire del Giappone*; and *Giovanni di Gisela* on the destruction of Jerusalem, which he dedicated to Benedict XIV.
In contrast with Bettinelli, he upheld the poetic value of the *Divine Comedy*; admired by Monti, he anticipated literary taste for visions; yet on the whole the man and the nobility of his ideals far surpass the poet.