Author: FOSCOLO, Ugo
Biography:
FOSCOLO, Ugo (1778-1827: ODNB)
He was born on 6 Feb. 1778 in Zakynthos (Zante), an Ionian island then under Venetian control, to Andrea Foscolo, an Italian physician, and his Greek wife, Diamantina Spatis. After his father’s death in 1788 he moved first to Venice and then to Milan when Venice came under control of the Austrians. These experiences formed the basis for his novel, Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802). Foscolo joined the Italian forces fighting the Austrians but was wounded and went into exile, arriving in England in Sept. 1816. By then he was already known as a writer and Foscolo was quickly absorbed into the Whig Holland House set. Although he made a name for himself writing reviews, particularly on Italian art, history, and literature, he lived beyond his means. His important “Essay on the Present Literature of Italy” was published as by John Cam Hobhouse (q.v.) in his Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold (1818) but was known to be by Foscolo and included an analysis of his writings. Foscolo had an Italian villa built near Regent’s Park in London and in 1821 he was joined there by his daughter, Floriana, who was born in 1805, the result of Foscolo’s relationship with her mother when he was stationed with the army in Valenciennes, France. (Floriana is believed to be the daughter of Sophia Hamilton, but there seems no certain proof.) They left the villa in 1824 because of debt and Foscolo was living in poverty with Floriana at Turnham Green, London, when he died on 10 Sept. 1827 following surgery for dropsy. He was buried on 18 Sept. at St. Nicholas, Chiswick, but his body was exhumed on 7 June 1871 in the presence of Italian dignitaries and of Foscolo’s physician and hairdresser who were present to confirm the identity of the remains. The body was shipped to Italy for burial at Santa Croce, Florence, although a memorial to Foscolo remains at Chiswick. Foscolo’s other writings include Essays on Petrarch (listed in this bibliography with prose by Foscolo), and a play, Ricciarda, issued in Italian by John Murray in 1821 and listed here in a translation by James Atkinson (q.v.). (ODNB 1 Jan. 2026; ancestry.co.uk 1 Jan. 2026; Morning Herald 18 July 1825; Rachel A. Walsh, Ugo Foscolo’s Tragic Vision in Italy and England [2014]; Morning Advertiser 9 June 1871) SR