Item talk:Q387374

Education: attended some of the university lectures in Turin by Girolamo Tagliazucchi, prof of lit 1737

Patrons: When he returned to Milan in 1760, he met the new governor, Count Firmian, patron of the arts and letters, hoping he would provide him with patronage; but he lost favor with the Count when he published insensitive accounts of Portugal in his Lettere; Friendship with SJ “allowed him to make a living and achieve fame as an author, without having to resort to a Maecenas or patron.” SJ also noted that “Baretti had been the first author to receive ?copy-money? in Italy for his works” (DNB)

Coteries: Carlo Cantoni; Gasparo Gozzi; the Accademia dei Trasformati: Passeroni, Tanzi, Bicetti, and Balestrieri; the Accademia dei Granelleschi; Mrs Charlotte Lennox; Henry Fielding; David Garrick; Samuel Johnson; Giuseppe Parini; Carlo and Gasparo Gozzi; Literary Club: Oliver Goldsmith, James Boswell, and Edmund Burke

Periodicals etc.: published La Frusta Letteraria (?The Literary Scourge?) - attacked many writers 1762-5; European Magazine 1788

Overall: Baretti traveled between Italy and England, though he grew increasingly disillusioned with the literary atmosphere in Italy. He had many influential friendships, most notably SJ, and he viewed his literary circles as direct links to possible publication of his own writings. After the publication of his Dissertation upon the Italian Poetry, he quickly discovered that he would be most financially successful in England as a "promoter of Italian language and literature" (DNB). He was an extremely prolific writer in English, Italian, and French. Throughout his life, he relied on writing as opportunites for income. His Dictionary of the English and Italian languages was particularly lucrative. He published only one volume of original poetry in 1750.

Jacob Sider Jost/ Mary Naydan/ Noah Fusco, “Poets of the 1730s: A Digital Humanities Seedling” (2017/ 2021)