Poet and novelist, born Milan, 1785; died Brusoglio, near Milan, 1873. Most of his creative work was done before the age of forty-two. His early poems belong to the classlcal school of Vincenzo Monti, but from 1810, when he returned to the Church on the conversion of his wife, he consecrated himself to religion and patriotism, and became the leader of the Romanticists. His ode on the death of Napoleon is one of the most popular Italian lyrics. Manzoni's fame was established abroad by "I Promessi Sposi," considered by Scott as the greatest romance of modern times.