Carlo Dossi

Carlo Alberto Pisani Dossi (born March 27, 1849, in Zenevredo; died November 19, 1910, Cardina, Como) was an Italian writer, politician and diplomat. He belonged to the Scapigliati. Dossi was a member of the first generation of Lombard line.

Biography

Born into an aristocratic Lombard family and educated in Milan and Pavia, Carlo Alberto Pisani Dossi began his literary career at 16, when he and his friend Gigi Perelli co-authored two stories published together as Giannetto pregò un dì la mamma che il lasciasse andare alla scuola. In 1867 they founded the ambitious journal Palestra letteraria artistica e scientifica, whose contributors were to include Rovani, Carducci, Francesco Guerrazzi, and Settembrini. Perelli brought Dossi into contact with the Milanese Scapigliatura, and in particular with Giuseppe Rovani. Dossi admired him as the equal of Manzoni and wrote an unfinished study published posthumously as Rovaniana. But thanks to his wealth, and his character, he was able to maintain a personal and aesthetic distance from the movement. He then moved to Rome in 1872 where he made friends with, among others, Edmondo Mayor des Planches and Luigi Bodio. In 1873 he became plenipotentiary in Eritrea (an Italian colony to which he seems to have given the name replacing the previous one of "New Ethiopia"). He married Carlotta Borsani in 1892 and became consul general first in Bogotà and three years later in Athens. Both postings allowed him to pursue a passion for archaeology. He retired upon Crispi's death in 1901. Dossi was an atheist.