Italian poet and writer born in Trapani, Ignacio Lombardi studied at the seminary in Mazara and became professor of Italian literature at the University of Palermo. For his efforts during the Italian Risorgimento, he was called the “poet of the Revolution”.
Impromptu poet, magician of words put in rhyme, Lombardi filled the theaters with wealthy, electrified crowds willing to pay a ticket and hear verses about their country and freedom. He became “Eliodoro”, as admirers in Messina called him, “a gift of the sun god”. In 1858, in a theater of Reggio Calabria, while he was speaking, such was the enthusiasm that the Bourbon soldiers burst in. He managed to escape by fleeing through a secret door and moved to Milan. When he heard about Garibaldi’s landing in Sicily, he returned to the island. The place where history was being made.
After the Unification of Italy, Eliodoro settled in Piedmont looking for job. He declines the Chairmanship of Italian literature at University of Parma and goes to teach in High Schools of Bergamo and Verona. But he still yearns for the patriotic fight. He abandons his wife and daughter to follow Garibaldi in the Trentino. In 1866, wounded in one arm, Eliodoro goes back to Sicily to teach in Marshall and Palermo.
On March 9, 1894, during a lecture on Dante, was struck by a cerebral congestion.
Read More:
1. LaRepublica.it, http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2010/09/24/la-rivoluzione-in-versi-di-eliodoro-lombardi.html
2. Wikipedia, https://www.google.com/#q=eliodoro+lombardi%2C+wikipedia
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