Dictionary.net

An Italian literary historian and critic (1818-83); born at Morra. His revolutionary critical disquisitions on the great poets gained him distinction. He was general secretary of the department of public education in the revolutionary government of 1848; after restoration of the monarchy he spent three years in prison, where he studied German literature, and translated parts of Goethe and Schiller and Hegel's "Logic". Afterward he was minister of education, and professor in the University of Naples. His most important works are a "History of Italian Literature" and "Critical Essays", the latter a work of high authority.