FLT Author: D'Ambrogio, Rinaldo

Very little is currently known about Rinaldo (Raynaldo) D’Ambrogio, who was born in Veroli (Sacré 2020: 31) and from his works, it is evident that he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He might be identified as the Rindaldo D’Ambrogio (born c. 1886) who taught at the liceo classico.

D’Ambrogio authored a range of poems in Italian and Latin on political, religious, and private topics. There are no known works by D’Ambrogio from the 1920s. Based on his self-descriptions in at least two poems, Sincerus and Spartacus (D’Ambrogio 1930: 75–76, and 79–80), it seems that he was initially critical of Fascism (see also Bettegazzi 2023: 112n3). His attitude apparently changed, possibly after the Lateran Pacts, and in his poetry from the 1930s, praise of Mussolini and the regime is ubiquitous.

Bibliography

Latin texts

D’Ambrogio, Rinaldo. 1930. Fasciculus Myrrhae : Carmina. Veroli: Reali.

———. 1933. Carmen Balbo eiusque Sociis: con traduzione italiana. Napoli: Tipografia Contessa.

———. 1933. De foedere amicitiae italo-russo: ode con traduzione italiana. Napoli: Tipografia Contessa.

———. 1933. Littoria. Elegia Latina Con Traduzione Italiana. Napoli: Tipografia Contessa.

———. 1951. Verso il duemila: Poesia italiana e latina. Frosinone: Tip. La Tipografica.

Other works (selection)

D’Ambrogio, Rinaldo. 1930. Poemetti. Ferentino: Scuola tip. Casa Divina Provvidenza.

———. 1933. Liriche. Naples: Tipografia Contessa.

———. 1936. Anxur: versi. S. Angelo dei Lombardi: Tip. Davidde Aurelio.

———. 1936. Versi di Rinaldo D’Ambrogio. S. Angelo dei Lombardi: Tip. Davidde Aurelio.

———. 1937. La pesca dei coralli. Rome: Tip. Russo e Bellomo.

Secondary literature

Bettegazzi, Nicolò. 2023. ‘Ideologies of Latin in Fascist Italy (1922 1943): The Language of Rome between Fascism and Catholicism’. PhD, Groningen: University of Groningen.

Sacré, Dirk. 2020. ‘Die neulateinische Literatur in Mussolinis Italien’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 13–50. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Erlend Myklebust

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