DALL'ONGARO (Francesco) - Lot 286

DALL'ONGARO (Francesco) DALL'ONGARO, Francesco (1808-1873). Autograph working manuscript of a biographical sketch for the New Monthly Magazine ("Note biografica pour Mr Herald"), ca. 1860. Important autograph set in Italian, written in brown ink on paper, consisting of several in-4 leaves that have been extensively corrected, crossed out and reworked. The first leaf bears the autograph title: "Note biografica pour Mr Herald", followed by the signature "prof. Dall'Ongaro". The whole constitutes a highly worked preparatory state of an intellectual and political autobiography by the Italian patriot writer Francesco Dall'Ongaro, a figure of the Risorgimento, poet, playwright, journalist and companion of the Italian revolutionary movements of the XIXᵉ century. The text traces his youth in Veneto, his abandonment of the ecclesiastical career, his studies of philosophy and oriental languages in Padua, then his involvement in the Italian patriotic press. Dall'Ongaro recalls the founding of literary and political journals, his Dantean lectures, his embrace of national ideals, as well as his role in the revolutionary events of 1848 and in defending the Roman Republic with Mazzini and Garibaldi. The manuscript also presents important developments in his literary work: Fasma, Fornaretto, Bianca Cappello, Alghe delle lagune, as well as his patriotic songs and popular publications in support of Italian unity. Several passages concern his dealings with Austrian censors, his exile in Switzerland and then France, his lectures on Dante, and his activity as a committed publicist. The lively whole is a remarkable testimony to Dall'Ongaro's compositional methods: continuous corrections, marginal additions, deletions and rewrites cover almost every page. These pages reveal the elaboration of an autobiographical text intended to introduce an English-speaking readership to the author's intellectual and political trajectory. A fine intellectual and historical provenance for this manuscript combining literature, journalism and the history of the Italian Risorgimento. Rare autograph set of work by a major player in the Italian national movement of the XIXᵉ century.