Tommaso Grossi

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Tommaso Grossi (January 20, 1791 - December 10, 1853), Lombard poet and novelist, was born in Bellano, beside the Lake of Como.He took his degree in law at Pavia in 1810, and proceeded thence to Milan to exercise his profession; but the Austrian government, suspecting his loyalty, interfered with his prospects, and in consequence Grossi was a simple notary all his life. That the suspicion was well grounded he soon showed by writing the battle poem La Prineide (1814) in Milanese, in which he described with vivid colours the tragical death of Giuseppe Prina, chief treasurer during the Empire, whom the people of Milan, instigated by Austrian agitators, had torn to pieces and dragged through the streets of the town (1814). The poem- subversive even in being an incunable of the surfacing Western Lombard dialect as a literary language- being anonymous, was first attributed to the celebrated Carlo Porta, but Grossi of his own accord acknowledged himself the author.