Giovanni Battista Niccolini

Background

Niccolini was born in Bagni San Giuliano in 1792.

Career

He wrote his first play in Greek in 1810. The play was strongly based on Greek legeng and it was called Polissena. This tragedy about the sacrifice of a virgin was so favourably received that his next three plays were also tragedies.

In 1846 his play, Arnold of Brescia: A Tragedy. was translated by the English immigrant Theodosia Trollope into English and published.

This work was also taken up by Robert Browning. The work was written in support of the formation of Italy.

Niccolini died in Florence in 1861

There is a Via Giovanni Battista Niccolini in Chinatown in Milan.

Membership

Accademia della Crusca.

Main Photo