Luigi Illuminati (Atri, 1881 – Atri 1962) was a priest, teacher and author of poems in Latin, Italian and the Abruzzese dialect (Cupaiolo 1994: 37; Di Felice 1994a: 67-69; Grillo 2006: 219). He first studied Philosophy and Theology at the Seminary of Penne (Di Felice 2006: 349); after his ordination, he pursued a degree in Letters at the University of Naples, graduating in 1909 under the supervision of the Latinist Enrico Cocchia (1859-1930) (Cupaiolo 1994: 24, 37 n. 3). Soon after, Illuminati began teaching in High Schools across Italy. In 1923, the Minister of Education Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944), a friend of Illuminati (Di Felice 1994a: 70), appointed him headmaster (preside) of the Royal High School of Atri (Regio Ginnasio di Atri). In 1926 he moved to Genoa to teach Latin and Greek at the High School A. Doria (Liceo A. Doria) (Barberini 1994: 49).

Illuminati’s academic career began in 1934 at the University of Genoa, where he taught Latin and Greek grammar until 1938; in 1939 he taught Latin literature at the University of Cagliari, and in 1940 he obtained the professorship of Latin language and literature (Di Felice 1994b: 77-78). From 1940 until his retirement in 1956 he taught at the University of Messina (Cupaiolo 1994; Traina 2003: 288). He spent the last years of his life in Atri, his hometown (Di Felice 2006:350).

During his academic career, Illuminati produced scholarly works on a wide variety of topics, including studies on Latin and Greek language and syntax, and on the Latin literature of the archaic, classical and Flavian period (Cupaiolo 1994: 29-35). Particularly acclaimed was Illuminati (1938), a study of descriptions of travels in Latin poetry from Gaius Lucilius to Rutilius Namatianus (Di Felice 1994b: 75-76).

Illuminati was also a prolific and respected author of Latin poems, translations, and occasionally inscriptions: the Latinist Ugo Enrico Paoli (1884-1963), a colleague at the University of Genoa, described his poetry as not inferior in form nor in spirit to that of Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) (Di Felice 1994a: 72). His Latin translation of Goethe’s Roman Elegies (Illuminati 1939) was praised in the German journal Societas Latina as the work of “a second Propertius” (...alter Propertius) (Di Felice 1994b: 76-77). Most of Illuminati’s Latin production is collected in two volumes: Illuminati (1933) and Illuminati (1999), the latter published posthumously. Despite the wide recognition of his qualities as a Latin poet, Illuminati’s first and only official recognition in Latin competitions seems to have been the first prize at the Concorso Dux of 1930 (see introduction to Dux).

Bibliography

Latin texts

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. 1939. J. W. von Goethe: Elegie romane. Testo tedesco con a fronte la traduzione latina di Luigi Illuminati. Prefazione italiana di Guido Mazzoni. Translated by Luigi Illuminati. Genoa: Emiliano degli Orfini.

Illuminati, Luigi. 1931. Carmen in Benitum Mussolini Ducem. Florentiae: In Aed. “L’arte della Stampa.”

———. 1932. Dux. Carme latino premiato nella Gara Bandita dell’associazione Naz. Insegnanti fascisti. Turin etc.: Società Editrice Internazionale.

———. 1933. Inter viburna: Carminum volumen prius. Genuae: Ex typis Aemiliani degli Orfini.

———. 1999. Flamma quiescens. Atri: Associazione culturale “Luigi Illuminati.”

Other works of the author

Illuminati, Luigi. 1936. Tra classici e umanisti : con appendice di poesie latine. Pescara: De Arcangelis.

———. 1938. La satura odeporica latina. Milan: Società anonima editrice Dante Alighieri.

Secondary sources

Barberini, Francesco. 1994. “Luigi Illuminati: la figura e le opere.” In Omaggio a Luigi Illuminati nel trentennale della morte, 47–55. Atri: Associazione culturale “Luigi Illuminati.”

Barton, William M. 2020. “Pastoral and Italian Landscape in the Ventennio Fascista: Natural Themes in the Latin Poetry of F. Sofia Alessio, G. Mazza and L. Illuminati.” In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 245–322. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Cupaiolo, Giovanni. 1994. “Luigi Illuminati a Messina.” In Omaggio a Luigi Illuminati nel trentennale della morte, 23–38. Atri: Associazione culturale “Luigi Illuminati.”

Di Felice, Antonio. 1994a. “Le opere di Illuminati nella critica italiana e straniera.” In Omaggio a Luigi Illuminati nel trentennale della morte, 75–80. Atri: Associazione culturale “Luigi Illuminati.”

———. 1994b. “Luigi Illuminati. L’uomo, il poeta, l’umanista.” In Omaggio a Luigi Illuminati nel trentennale della morte, 65–73. Atri: Associazione culturale “Luigi Illuminati.”

———. 2006. “De Aloisio Illuminati poeta.” In Musae saeculi XX Latinae. Acta selecta patrocinantibue Academia Latinitati Fovendae atque Instituto Historico Belgico in Urbe Romae in Academia Belgica anno MMI habiti, edited by Dirk Sacré, Joseph Tusiani, and Tom Deneire, 349–50. Brussels/Rome: Brepols.

Fedeli, Paolo. 2020. “Uso e abuso della poesia di Orazio nelle odi al duce e al fascismo.” In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy in Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 51–76. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Fera, Vincenzo. 2006. “Microcosmo letterario meridionale: Morabito tra Francesco Sofia Alessio e Alfredo Bartoli.” In La poesia latina nell’area dello stretto fra Ottocento e Novecento: Atti del Convegno di Messina, 20-21 ottobre 2000, nel centenario della nascita di Giuseppe Morabito (1900-1997), edited by Vicenzo Fera, Daniela Gionta, and Elena Morabito, 311–35. Messina: Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi Umanistici.

Grillo, Antonio. 2006. “Luigi Illuminati poeta latino a Messina.” In Musae Saeculi XX Latinae. Acta selecta patrocinantibue Academia Latinitati Fovendae atque Instituto Historico Belgico in Urbe Romae in Academia Belgica anno MMI habiti, edited by Dirk Sacré, Joseph Tusiani, and Tom Deneire, 219–32. Brussels/Rome: Brepols.

Lamers, Han, and Bettina Reitz-Joosse. 2016. “Lingua Lictoria: The Latin Literature of Italian Fascism.” Classical Receptions Journal 8 (2): 216–52.

Traina, Alfonso. 2003. La lyra e la libra tra poeti e filologi. Bologna: Pàtron.

 Nicolò Bettegazzi