Death in the family

During his long life Manzoni suffered a number of family deaths and sorrows (and also the death of close friends such as Grossi and Rosmini). He survived both of his wives and all his children except for Vittoria and Enrico. In the space of a few painful years, his wife Henriette died, followed by the oldest child Giulia (his beloved “Giulietta”), his daughter Cristina and his mother Giulia Beccaria. Described by Massimo d’Azeglio (to his cousin Cesare Balbo) as “consumed by an illness of languor”, Henriette died on Christmas night, 1833 and was buried at the cemetery at Brusuglio. Manzoni wrote her an epitaph, a text whose solemnity followed the family hierarchy, with Henriette remembered as “daughter-in-law, wife, mother”, in that order. Shortly afterwards, however, Manzoni succeeded in expressing his sorrow rather more profoundly in his unfinished hymn Natale 1833, where his wife’s death is dramatically presented to the reader as evidence of the unfathomable and cruel nature of God’s plan. Nine months later, on 20 September, Giulietta died. In 1832, she had married Massimo d’Azeglio (painter and literary figure, author of historical novels, including Ettore Fieramosca). Their marriage had been an unhappy one, however, and soon after Giulietta’s death, Massimo married the protestant Louise Maumari, after obtaining the required dispensation from Pope Gregory. The fact that this second marriage took place so soon after Giulietta’s death caused great sorrow to Manzoni and his mother Giulia, who reluctantly had to give up their little granddaughter Rina (Alessandrina), the daughter of Massimo and Giulietta, to the new couple. Giulietta was also buried at Brusuglio and again Manzoni wrote the epitaph. Two more deaths afflicted Manzoni a few years later, when he was engrossed in the linguistic revision and illustrated edition of his novel. At the end of May 1841, his second-born Cristina died, also leaving a husband and baby daughter. A few weeks later, on 7 July, his mother died.