User:Scottandrewwilliams/Attilio Momigliano

Attilio Momigliano (Ceva, March 7, 1883 – Florence, April 2, 1952) was an Italian literary critic.

Momigliano's essays reveal his interests in cultural and psychological analysis, together with poetic structure. The writings that best reflect his approach require a refined sensibility, as is the case of his essays on Politian, Giuseppe Parini, Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni. His critical method notably distanced itself both from the theoretical schematism of Benedetto Croce's periodical La Critica and from the contrasting method of philological erudition put forth by the scuola storica (historical school) of Francesco De Sanctis.

Biography
Momigliano was a student of Arturo Graf and taught Italian literary history at the Liceo classico Cavour and the Liceo Gioberti in Turin, the University of Catania in Sicily, then in Pisa and finally in Florence. He accepted in his critical method the principles of the Crocian aesthetic, while making of it his own approach aimed at a strong, and at the same time calm, moral tension.

On April 10, 1910, Momigliano was initiated into the Freemason lodge "Vittorio Alfieri" at Asti, where he was also raised to the ranks of Compagno d'arte and Maestro on the same day as his initiation.

Momigliano was among the signatories of the 1925 Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, drafted by Benedetto Croce. In 1938, following the Italian racial laws, He was expelled from the University of Florence, where he was replaced by Giuseppe De Robertis, after Massimo Bontempelli had refused to take the position.

In 1944, he escaped racial persecution, finding refuge at the hospital of Sansepolcro, thanks to the director, Raffaello Alessandri, as well as don Duilio Mengozzi, Gino Franceschini, and the editor Giuseppe Paci of Città di Castello. For Paci's publishing house "La Tifernate", Momigliano wrote a preface to The Adventures of Pinocchio. From Sansepolcro, according to Amedeo Benedetti, "Momigliano and his wife fled on August 18, 1944, and only in April of 1945 were they able to return to Florence".

Among his most significant works were essays on Carlo Porta (1910) and Alessandro Manzoni (1915), and the book Introduzione ai poeti (1946). He was moreover the author of Storia della letteratura italiana in three volumes, and a commentary on the Divine Comedy (1945-1947).

A street in Pisa is named after him.

Works

 * L'indole e il riso di Luigi Pulci, Rocca San Casciano, Licinio Cappelli, 1907.
 * L'opera di Carlo Porta, Città di Castello, Lapi, 1909.
 * Carlo Porta, Modena, Formiggini, 1910.
 * L'Innominato, Genova, Formiggini, 1913.
 * Alessandro Manzoni, Messina, Principato, 1915.
 * Dagli "Sposi promessi" ai "Promessi sposi", Firenze, Perrella, 1921.
 * Primi studi goldoniani, Firenze, Perrella, 1922.
 * Giovanni Verga narratore, Palermo, G. Priulla, 1923.
 * Impressioni di un lettore contemporaneo, Milano, Mondadori, 1928.
 * Saggio sull'"Orlando furioso", Bari, Laterza, 1928.
 * Storia della letteratura italiana, Messina, Principato, 1932.
 * Studi di poesia, Bari, Laterza, 1938.
 * Dante, Manzoni, Verga, Messina, Principato, 1944.
 * Elzeviri, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1945.
 * Cinque saggi, Firenze, Sansoni, 1945.
 * Introduzione ai poeti, Roma, Tumminelli, 1946.
 * Ultimi studi (postumo), Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1954.
 * Saggi goldoniani (postumo, a cura di Vittore Branca), Firenze, Leo S. Olshki, 1959.