Vincenzo Monti (Alfonsine-Ravenna 1754–Milan 1828) met Foscolo for the first time in Venice in July 1797 when, in flight from Rome and heading for Milan, he spent two weeks in the lagoon city and was elected by acclaim a member of the Società di Istruzione Pubblica. The two writers subsequently had the opportunity to get to know and frequent each other assiduously in Milan where both resided from the end of 1797 for several years, apart from interruptions caused by political events. An intense friendship developed between the more mature poet, who was preceded in Cisalpine by his reputation for literary brilliance, although his political positions were disputed, and the young Foscolo, which was initially made out of political complicity and mutually beneficial literary discussions, but was also full of contrasts and conflicts that led in 1810 to an open rift in relations.
In May 1798 Foscolo wrote Esame contro le accuse su Vincenzo Monti (Examination against the accusations against Vincenzo Monti, Milan, Pirotta e Maspero), in which he defended Monti against a campaign of defamation by his Roman enemies, Francesco Gianni and Giuseppe Lattanti, aimed at discrediting the papal poet, author of the counter-revolutionary poem In morte di Ugo Bassville (In death of Ugo Bassville), in Cisalpine. The work contains his first stance against the ruling Milanese class and a defence of "Italian genius" made from a patriotic, pro-independence perspective. Epistola a Vincenzo Monti (Letter to Vincenzo Monti), written during his stay in France between July 1804 and March 1806, a work full of nostalgia for his friend and for Italy, was also dedicated to the “sommo cantore” (supreme poet). The mutual esteem is shown by the fact that Monti expressly went to Pavia to listen to the first of Foscolo's Pavia lectures.
The rift between the two took place around 1809-1810 in a climate of tension and literary disputes that, aside from the individual pretexts (the discussions about Homeric traditions and a polemic at the house of Minister Venèri over a negative review of a poem by Cesare Amici, who was protected by Monti), in reality it involved questions of cultural policy: Foscolo accused the literary figures close to the Napoleonic regime, whose leading representative was the very same Monti, of being servile to political power and of exercising a hegemonic influence over the distribution of positions and honours. After being aggravated by the contrasts over the representation of Ajace, the rift became permanent in April 1810.
Vincenzo Monti
