Author: Fortiguerra, Niccolo
Biography:
FORTIGUERRA, Niccolo (1674-1735: Biographie universelle)
A "prior" author whose mock-heroic poem Ricciardetto (1738) was published in part in English translations for the first time about 1820, Fortiguerra (or Forteguerri) was born into a noble family in Pistoia, Italy, and studied law at the university of Pisa. Several members of his close family were prominent Roman Catholic clergymen and he is sometimes identified as a clergyman himself (Bishop of Ancyra, for instance), though it seems that he may never have taken orders and that his various titles of Prelate and the like were conferred at the papal court in Rome to designate an administrative officer. His fortunes rose and fell under three popes but he maintained a literary salon in Rome, where Ricciardetto, in 30 cantos, was composed quickly as the byproduct of a debate. He died in Rome after a few months of "hopeless decline" which his Italian biographer, as relayed by the English translator J. H. Merivale (q.v.), attributed to a disappointment about advancement. (Puffing his own source without naming it, Merivale complains that "the general biographical dictionaries are full of falsehood.") John Murray published rival versions of the first canto between 1820 and 1822; Byron (q.v.), who knew Merivale, may have been influenced by either the original or the translations. (Biographie universelle 3 [1848] 589; Merivale, preface to Richardetto [1820]) HJ
Other Names:
- Forteguerri
- Niccolo Forteguerri