Carlo Alessandro Guidi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Poet
- Intellectual
- Playwright
Carlo Alessandro Guidi | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Carlo Alessandro Guidi, c. 1700 | |
| Born | 14 June 1650 |
| Died | 12 June 1712 (aged 61) |
| Resting place | Sant'Onofrio, Rome |
| Occupations |
|
| Title | abbot |
| Parent(s) | Bernardo Guidi and Maddalena Guidi (née Figarolla) |
| Writing career | |
| Pen name | Erilo Cleoneo |
| Language | |
| Literary movement |
|
Carlo Alessandro Guidi (14 June 1650 – 12 June 1712), Italian lyric poet, was born at Pavia.
As chief founder of the well-known Roman Academy of the Arcadians, he had a considerable share in the reform of Italian poetry, which at that time was dominated by the baroque extravagance of the poets Giambattista Marino and Claudio Achillini and their school. Guidi, Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, and the critic and jurisconsult Gravina attempted to foster a straightforward use of language.[1]
While his early verse shows the influence of Marino, he later cultivated the Pindaric manner of Chiabrera, producing canzoni of free stanzaic form.
His most celebrated song was Alla Fortuna (To Fortune).[1]
Guidi's poems were printed at Parma in 1671, and at Rome in 1704. In 1681 he published at Parma his lyric tragedy Amalasunta in Italia, and two pastoral dramas Daphne and Endymion.[1]
Guidi's poetical version of the six homilies of Pope Clement XI, was severely criticized by the satirist Settano. An edition of this version had been printed in 1712, and the pope being then in Castel Gandolfo, Guidi went there to present him with a copy. On the way he found out a serious typographical error, which he took so much to heart that he was seized with a stroke at Frascati and died on the spot.[1]
Guidi was honoured with the special protection of Ranuccio II, duke of Parma, and of Queen Christina of Sweden.
