Gabriele Rossetti

Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (28 February 1783 – 24 April 1854) was an Italian nobleman, poet, constitutionalist, scholar, and founder of the secret society Carbonari.

Rossetti was born in Vasto in the Kingdom of Naples. He was a Roman Catholic. His support for Italian revolutionary nationalism forced him into political exile in England in 1821.

Early career and exile

Rossetti's first edition of poems was printed in 1807 by Giovanni Avalloni, who offered to have them published after hearing Rossetti recite a few passages. Throughout his early career, Rossetti published poems that were "patriotic" and supported the "popular movement" in Sicily, which resulted in him receiving a grant from Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies in 1820. When the king revoked the constitution in 1821, many supporters of the constitution were persecuted, but Rossetti was instead forced into exile in Malta for three years before a British admiral of the Royal Navy sent Rossetti to London in 1824. He held the post of Professor of Italian at King's College London from 1831, as well as teaching Italian at King's College School, until failing eyesight led to his retirement in 1847.

Personal life

In 1826, he married Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, daughter of another Italian exile, Gaetano Polidori, and they had four children, all distinguished writers or artists:

Maria Francesca Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Rossetti died on 24 April 1854 in London, aged 71, and is buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery, adjacent to the grave of Elizabeth Madox Brown, the first wife of Ford Madox Brown. Later burials in the Rossetti family grave are Elizabeth Siddal, wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1862), Frances Rossetti, wife of Gabriele (1886), Christina Georgina Rossetti (1895) and William Michael Rossetti (1919). The ashes of four grandchildren have also been buried in the grave.