Patriot and Journalist in Milan

Many patriots and literary figures came from all over Italy to Milan, the capital of the Cisalpine Republic, which was established on June 29 1797; as soon as he arrived, Foscolo started to frequent the Circolo Costituzionale (Constitutional Club) led by Matteo Galdi, a gathering place for figures such as Vincenzo Dandolo, Giovanni Pindemonte and Giovanni Fantoni who were in agreement with the pursuit of the project for an Italian state and hostile to passive acceptance of French domination. In January 1798 Foscolo obtained a post as a writer for, and de facto director of “Monitore Italiano”, a publication inspired by the France's “Moniteur” that came out from January to April 1798, when it was closed by the authorities after 42 editions. The aim of the newspaper, which Melchiorre Gioia and Pietro Custodi also collaborated on, was to inform readers of political developments in Cisalpine. Foscolo was put in charge of the Notizie Universali (Universal News) section, devoted to foreign policy with special attention to Venice; the Venetian news was particularly absorbing and denounced the conditions the city was in after the arrival of the Austrians, in part through eye-witness reports Foscolo said he received from Venice. There was no lack of controversial judgements about Bonaparte, who had signed the Treaty of Campoformio. After four months of publication, the newspaper was halted for its criticism of the Cisalpine Directorate, which was considered excessively subordinate to French interests and directives. Foscolo left for Bologna in June, but then he returned to Milan, apparently in part because of an infatuation for Teresa Pickler, the wife of Vincenzo Monti, for whom he wrote in May Esame su le Accuse Contro Vincenzo Monti; in September 1798 though he had settled in Bologna, a move prompted by political caution and the need to find adequate accommodation in the city that had welcomed him the year before when he fled from Venice.