| Sigismondo Boldoni | |
| Birth Date: | 5 July 1597 |
| Birth Place: | Bellano, Duchy of Milan |
| Death Place: | Pavia, Duchy of Milan |
| Alma Mater: | University of Padua |
| Module: | |
| Parents: | Ottavio Boldoni and Cecilia Boldoni (née Cattaneo) |
Sigismondo Boldoni (5 July 1597 – 3 July 1630) was an Italian writer, philosopher, and physician. Boldoni was born in Bellano and died in Pavia from the plague shortly before his 33rd birthday. At the time of his death he held the principal chair in philosophy at the University of Pavia. His literary works included a description of the geography and history of Lake Como entitled Larius and the epic poem La caduta de' Longobardi (The Fall of the Lombards). His letters of 1629 describing the advance of invading German armies in the region around Lake Como and the plague epidemic they brought in their wake were used by Manzoni as a source for his 1827 novel I Promessi Sposi.[1]
Boldoni was one of seven siblings born to a prominent family in Bellano on the shores of Lake Como. His brothers Giovanni Nicolò, Ottavio, Flavio, and Aurelio and his sisters Aurelia and Livia all later became writers of some note. Boldoni's mother was Cecilia Cattaneo di Primaluna. His father Ottavio was a jurist and the only son of Nicolò Boldoni, the Italian court physician of Philip II. Little is known about Boldoni's youth. He is thought to have been educated in Como and Milan, and then following in the footsteps of his grandfather he studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Padua.[2] [3]
It was the death of his father in 1615 that led to Boldoni enrolling in the University of Padua. A quarrel over their father's inheritance between Boldoni and his brothers Flavio and Aurelio led to Boldoni wounding Flavio with a sword. Although his brothers pardoned him, he remained subject to arrest for attempted fratricide and fled Milan for Padua where he completed his studies in 1618.
After leaving Padua, Boldoni spent time in Venice, Pesaro and Urbino before moving to Rome where he lived for the next four years. He became a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi and enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini and Maffeo Barberini (Pope Urban VIII). He was finally able to return to the Duchy of Milan in 1622. Several prominent members of the Roman Curia and the Milanese senator Giovanni Battista Arconati had successfully intervened with the authorities on his behalf over the incident with his brother. Boldoni was given a teaching position in philosophy at the University of Pavia and in 1623 was accepted into Milan's Noble College of Physicians.
By his own confession, Boldoni's passion for writing led to him to devote the minimal amount of his time to teaching in Pavia, and he began writing an epic poem La Caduta dei Longobardi (The Fall of the Lombards). In 1625 he also spent three months in Rome, having travelled there via Bologna and Florence, and continued working on La Caduta dei Longobardi with the encouragement of the poet Alessandro Tassoni. Nevertheless, in 1628 Boldoni was promoted to the most important chair of philosophy at Pavia despite competition from Nicola Sacco who had taught at the university for over thirty years and was considered a renowned authority on Aristotle. Boldoni's literary activity during this time included a lecture on Aristotle's De Caelo, editing Historiae patriae by Benedetto Giovio (the elder brother of Paolo Giovio), and efforts to complete La Caduta dei Longobardi.
Boldoni's letters of 1629 written while he was sojourning in Bellano describe the ravages of the advancing German armies in the region around Lake Como and the plague which the soldiers brought in their wake. Two centuries later, the letters would serve as a source for Manzoni's novel I Promessi Sposi. When the plague approached Bellano, Boldoni returned to Pavia. He died there on 3 July 1630, two days before his 33rd birthday. According to the historian Cesare Cantù, he had contracted the plague from a contaminated suit of clothes brought to him by his tailor. Some 19th-century accounts of his life state that shortly before his death, Boldoni had been appointed to the principal chair of philosophy at the University of Padua. However, doubts have been cast on this because the previous holder of the chair, Cesare Cremonini, died a year later than Boldoni and there are no records of him having retired.[4] [5]