The Poet in Florence

In 1806 Foscolo is in Florence.

He is disappointed by Napoleon who, having arrived in Italy as a liberator, with the Treaty of Campoformio (1797) and with his coronation as Emperor of the French (1804) he threw the mask and manifested himself as he really was: an unscrupulous conqueror.

Deeply embittered, Foscolo walks on the banks of the Arno and thinks back over the discussion he had with his friend, the intellectual I.

Pindemonte, on a question that was very current at the time.

Three years earlier, in fact, a law had been enacted, the "Edict of Saint Cloud", which forbade the burial of corpses in churches and, in general, within the city walls.

It was an Enlightenment-inspired law and had a hygienic and symbolic sense: among other things, it prohibited the presence of unequal headstones in terms of grandeur.

But it was a French law, very far from what the Italian spirit was, which had always paid much attention to the question of memories.

Walking through Florence, therefore, one afternoon, Foscolo arrives at Santa Croce, which is located a short distance from the bank of the Arno, heading south.

He enters the church and in front of those tombs, so important for Italian culture, despite his materialistic convictions, compared to the discussion he had with his friend Pindemonte, he changes his mind.