A
Alessandro Manzoni
writer
- Birth name:
- Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni
- Born:
- 1785-03-07, Milan, Duchy of Milan [now Milan, Lombardy, Italy]
- Died:
- 1873-05-22, Milan, Lombardy, Kingdom of Italy [now Italy]
- Professions:
- writer
Biography
Alessandro Manzoni, born in Milan on 7 March 1785, turned a nation’s scattered dialects into a single heartbeat. Between 1821 and 1825 he forged, rewrote, then re-forged again the towering I promessi sposi, a tale of plague, power and peasant lovers that became Italy’s first truly national novel. Three separate manuscripts—each a crucible in which Tuscan vowels and Lombard stubbornness were melted into the gold of contemporary Italian—earned him the unofficial title of architect of the modern language.
