VARANO, ALFONSO. - Writer, b. at Ferrara on 13 Dec. 1705, d. there on 18 June 1788.
A pupil of Abbé Tagliazucchi at the Modenese College of Nobles, he devoted himself to literary studies and poetry, in which he pursued clear moral aims within a Christian view of history. In the Rime he imitated now Petrarca, now Berni; in the Egloghe, Virgilio and Teocrito; but in the Visioni, twelve canticles in terza rima, he drew inspiration from the Bible and Dante’s Commedia, modernly restating theological and philosophical questions, and celebrated the greatness of the Christian Mysteries against Voltaire, who had denied Christianity the possibility of living poetry. For the theatre he wrote: Demetrio; Saeba regina di Ginge e di Taniorre; Agnese martire del Giappone; and Giovanni di Giscala, on the destruction of Jerusalem, which he dedicated to Benedetto XIV.
In opposition to Bettinelli, he upheld the poetic value of the Divina Commedia; admired by Monti, he anticipated his literary taste for visions; but on the whole the man and the nobility of his ideals far surpass the poet.