orig. Niccolò Foscolo
born Feb. 6, 1778, Zacynthus, Venetian republic
died Sept. 10, 1827, Turnham Green, near London, Eng.
Italian poet and novelist.
His works articulated the feelings of many Italians during the turbulent epoch of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule. After Austria regained Italy in 1814, Foscolo fled first to Switzerland and then to Britain. His popular novel The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1802) bitterly denounced Napoleon's cession of Venetia to Austria. Among his poems are the patriotic "Dei sepolcri" (1807) and the acclaimed but unfinished Le grazie (1822).