Vincenzo da Filicaja

Vincenzo da Filicaja

Vincenzo da Filicaja (30 December 1642 – 24 September 1707) was a poet and politician, citizen of Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His poetry was compared to that of Petrarch, and his association with the Accademia della Crusca gave him access to royal patronage. He served as governor of Volterra and Pisa, successively, and finally in the Tuscan Senate.

Quotes

• Italia, Italia! o tu cui feo la sorte
  Dono infelice di bellezza, ond' hai
  Funesta dote d'infiniti guai
  Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte:
  Deh fossi tu men bella o almen piu forte,
  Onde assai più ti paventasse, o assai
  T'amasse men, chi dal tuo bello a' rai
  Par che si strugga, e pur ti sfida a morte.
  • Italia! oh Italia! thou who hast
    The fatal gift of beauty, which became
    A funeral dower of present woes and past,
    On thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame,
    And annals graved in characters of flame.
    O God! that thou wert in thy nakedness
    Less lovely or more powerful, and couldst claim
    Thy right, and awe the robbers back who press
    To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of thy distress.
  • Sonnet 87 (All' Italia) translated by Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 4, st. 42. Reported in W. F. H. King (ed.) Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (London: J. Whitaker & Sons, Ltd., 1904) p. 147, no. 1153