Monti, Vincenzo (1754–1828)

Italian poet. Most of his poems deal with current political events. La Bassvilliana 1793, on the murder of Hugo Basseville, the French ambassador in Rome, was written in imitation of Dante. His other chief works were Il bardo della Selva Nera 1806, a eulogy of Napoleon, and a translation of Homer's Iliad 1807.

Monti was born in Alfonsine, near Ravenna. At the beginning of his career he was a violent enemy of the French, but he later became a republican, then an admirer of Napoleon, and lastly of the emperor of Austria, writing eulogies in their honour. He was professor of eloquence at Pavia during the French republic, and during the empire was historiographer for Italy in Milan.

He also wrote the tragedies Aristodemo 1786, Galeotti Manfredi 1787, and Caio Gracco 1800, among various odes and other poems. His Proposta di alcune correzioni ed aggiunte al vocabolario della Crusca 1817–24 was an attack on the pedantry of the Accademia della Crusca.