Biography

He was born at Chiampo

Chiampo

Chiampo is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. It is on SP43.-Sources:*...

, near Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...

, and was educated for the priesthood. After his ordination he became professor at the lyceum

Lyceum

The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...

 of his native place, but his patriotic sympathies excited the jealousy of the Austrian authorities, and although protected by his diocesan, he was compelled to resign in 1853. After the liberation of Venetia, the Italian government conferred upon him a professorship at Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

, and he achieved distinction as a poet on the publication of his first volume of poems in 1868.

In 1872 grief for the death of his mother occasioned a mental malady, which led to the resignation of his professorship. After his complete and permanent recovery he built himself a villa on the bank of his native river, the Astichello, and lived there in tranquility until his death in 1888.

His last published volume contains a series of sonnets of singular beauty, addressed to the river, resembling Wordsworth's

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

 "Sonnets to the Duddon," but more perfect in form; and a blank verse idyll, "Il Pettirosso" ("The Redbreast"), bearing an equally strong, though equally accidental, resemblance to the similar compositions of Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

. His ode to Dante

DANTE

Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

, and that on the opening of the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

, are distinguished by great dignity.

Of his other compositions, the most individual are those in which, deeply impressed by the problems of his day, he has sought to reconcile science and religion, especially the fine dialogue between John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

 and Galileo, where the former, impressed by Galileo's predictions of the intellectual consequences of scientific progress, resolves " to justify the ways of God to man." Zanella was a broad-minded and patriotic ecclesiastic, and his character is justly held in equal honor with his poetry, which, if hardly to be termed powerful, wears a stamp of peculiar elegance and finish, and asserts a place of its own in modern Italian literature

Italian literature

Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

.