Poet. He was an Italian 18th century poet and novelist, who wrote about the feelings of many Italians during the turbulent epoch of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule. His writings are considered masterpieces in Italian literature. Born Niccolò Foscolo on the largest of the Ionian Islands, his family was well-educated and part of the literary circles. His father worked as a doctor in Croatia but died when Foscolo was ten years old, an event that then led the family to relocated to Venice in 1793. In 1797, he became famous with his tragedy "Tieste." At first, he had early enthusiasm for Napoleon, proclaiming this in his 1797 ode "A Bonaparte liberatore," but this was short-lived after the Treaty of Campo Formio the same year. When the Austrians and Russians invaded Italy in 1799, Foscolo, with other Italian patriots, joined with the French military. Considered the first Italian novel, he wrote "Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis" in 1802, which tells of his political disillusion. He was sent to serve in France between 1804 to 1806. He saw action in Trebbia and Genoa where he was wounded and imprisoned. During these years, he wrote odes and sonnets while translating into Italian some classics including Laurence Stern's 1768 novel "Sentimental Journey." In 1807 his patriotic poet in blank verse, "Dei sepolcri," earned him the chair of Italian Rhetoric at the University of Pavia; this has been considered his most-worthy poem. When the chair was abolished by Napoleon the next year, Foscolo moved on to Milan. This followed with a series of satirical poems about Napoleon while he relocated to Florence and back to Milan. When Austrians returned to Italy with the fall of Napoleon, he refused to take the oath of allegiance, escaping to Switzerland first and then in 1816 to England. Popular for a time in English society because he was an Italian patriot, he supported himself by lecturing and writing commentaries for periodicals including the "Edinburgh Review," yet in the end, he spent some time in a debtor's prison before dying in poverty. Originally buried in Old Chiswick Cemetery in London, his remains were removed in 1871 at the request of the King of Italy to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. A cenotaph remains at the original site. He had at least five documented romantic encounters but never married. His daughter was born in 1805.