Foscolo left Milan in December 1811 after the failure of Ajace and the attacks in “Poligrafo” and had a long spell in Venice, near to his family and long-standing friend Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, who he saw for the last time. His return to Milan coincided with a period of depression and disquiet which Foscolo relieved at the start of the summer with a visit to the nobleman Alberico Barbiano at his residence, Villa Belgiojoso, in the countryside near Pavia. After another unhappy stay in Milan, Foscolo decided to leave what had become a “prison” for him and chose “exile” in Tuscany, attracted by the memories of his stay in 1800 and by his “love of the literature and language” (Ep. IV, p. 77). He arrived in Florence in August 1812, after a stay in Bologna where he visited Cornelia Martinetti, one of the three priestesses of Le Grazie.
Apart from a brief interruption in the summer of 1813, his stay in Florence extended until November of the same year and it was a particularly stimulating period for Foscolo, who entertained new relationships and devoted himself to literary work with intensity; he published Sterne's Sentimental Journey in Pisa with Notizie intorno a Didimo Chierico; he wrote the tragedy Ricciarda; he worked on the project for a poem that would become Le Grazie; he resumed his studies on Machiavelli. Among the most interesting acquaintances he made in this period was Luisa Stolberg, the Countess of Albany and partner of Vittorio Alfieri, who died in 1803, and whose salon was frequented by Florence's cultured, international society. His relationship with Quirina Mocenni Maggiotti, who remained a friend of the poet in the successive years, helping him in his time of exile, was also important. The Florentine period was also lightened by a stay at the house of Bellosguardo in the hills around the city, where Foscolo wrote some verses of Le Grazie.
The stay in Tuscany and the writing of Le Grazie (1812-1813)
