VARANO, ALFONSO. - Writer, b. in Ferrara on 13 Dec. 1705, d. there on 18 June 1788.

A pupil of Abbot Tagliazucchi at the Modenese College of Nobles, he devoted himself to literary studies and to poetry, in which he pursued clear moral aims within a Christian vision of history. In the Rime he imitated now Petrarch, now Berni; in the Egloghe, Virgil and Theocritus; but in the Visioni, twelve canticles in terza rima, he drew inspiration from the Bible and from Dante's Commedia, restating theological and philosophical questions in a modern way and celebrating the greatness of the Christian Mysteries against Voltaire, who had denied the possibility of living poetry to Christianity. For the theater he wrote: Demetrio; Saeba regina di Ginge e di Taniorre; Agnese martire del Giappone; and the Giovanni di Giscala on the destruction of Jerusalem, which he dedicated to Benedict 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.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: edd.: Opere scelte in poesia, Milan 1818; Visioni, Turin 1886. Studi: P. Pompeati, Dalle poesie di A. V., note critiche, Feltre 1901; L. Cambini, A. V. poeta di visioni, Ferrara 1904 (with bibl.).

Enzo Navarra

@incollection{ec12_varano_alfonso, author = {Navarra, Enzo}, title = {Varano, alfonso}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1029--1030}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/varano-alfonso} }

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Varano, Alfonso

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