Niccolò Tommaseo

Niccolò Tommaseo (Italian: [nikkoˈlɔ tommaˈzɛːo]; 9 October 1802 – 1 May 1874) was an Italian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a Dizionario della Lingua Italiana in eight volumes (1861–74), of a dictionary of synonyms (1830) and other works. He is considered a precursor of the Italian irredentism.

Born at Sebenico (Šibenik), which was in quick succession under Venetian, Napoleonic and Habsburg domain, Tommaseo was culturally and ethnically Italian, but expressed also genuine interest in the Illyrian popular culture. His education, pursued at Split/Spalato, was a humanistic one with a sound Catholic basis.

He moved to Italy to graduate in law at the University of Padua in 1822. He then spent several years as a journalist roving between Padua and Milan, where he came in contact with Alessandro Manzoni and Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. In this period of life he began his collaboration in the Antologia of Giovan Pietro Vieusseux, founder of the Gabinetto Vieusseux, the reading room and intellectual centre in Florence. He also corresponded with Petar II Petrović Njegoš of Montenegro and Medo Pucić.

Having moved to Florence in the autumn of 1827, he became a friend of Gino Capponi and soon became one of the important voices in the Antologia. In 1830 appeared the Nuovo Dizionario de' Sinonimi della lingua italiana which confirmed his public reputation. Following the protests of the Austrian government against an article defending the Greek revolution that resulted in the closure of the journal in which he was publishing, he sought voluntary exile in Paris.

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