Silvio Pellico

Silvio Pellico (born June 25, 1789, Saluzzo, Kingdom of Sardinia [now in Italy]—died Jan. 31, 1854, Turin) was an Italian patriot, dramatist, and author of Le mie prigioni (1832; My Prisons), memoirs of his sufferings as a political prisoner, which inspired widespread sympathy for the Italian nationalist movement, the Risorgimento.

Educated at Turin, Pellico spent four years in France, returning to Italy in 1809 to begin his career as a poet and playwright. His romantic tragedy Francesca da Rimini (published 1818) was a success on its first performance (1815) and was followed by several others. He had already become one of the circle of Romantic revolutionary writers including Vincenzo Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Giovanni Berchet, and Alessandro Manzoni, and in 1818 he collaborated in founding a liberal and patriotic newspaper, Il Conciliatore, of which he became editor. After its suppression by the Austrian police (1819), he joined the Carbonari and, in October 1820, was arrested for treason. In 1822 he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, of which he served eight years in prisons in Milan, Venice, and the infamous Spielberg (Spilberk) fortress (used as a political prison by the Habsburgs) in Brunn. From 1838 he lived with his wife in Turin. Of his plays, poetry, and prose works, Le mie prigioni is still widely read and translated for its simple, direct style, spiritual revelation, and Christian piety.