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Giosuè Carducci

Nobel prize winning poet and writer

Born in 1835 in Valdicastello, near Pietrasanta, Carducci spent most of his life in the Maremma, specifically at Bolgheri thanks to his father who was an impetuous doctor and his participation in the miners revolts. He completed his first studies in Florence where he was already recognized for having a particular predisposition for literary studies. In 1855 he graduated with a literature degree from university in Pisa.

In 1856 began his career as a teacher at San Miniato, but 1858 he was suspended from teaching for his political beliefs. For three years he lived in Florence working for the Barbera publishing house where he edited small volumes. In 1860 he returned to teaching at the University of Bologna in the Department of Italian Literature and he remained there until 1904. The central theme of his poetry developed around the contrast between a life conducted following the rhythms of nature and the need to adapt oneself to middle class, city life. He found his inspiration in the setiments of life, the values of love and beauty, and above all in landscapes and memory, understood as nostalgia for the past. In 1906 he won the Nobel prize for literature for his extensive critical research, his freshness of style, and the lyrical force that characterized his masterpieces.