Canti, CESARE

Canti, CESARE, Italian author, was born 8th December 1807, at Brivio, in the Milanese territory, and was destined for the priesthood, but early adopted literature as a profession. Imprisoned in 1833 for expressing liberal tendencies in an historical work on Lombardy, he spent his leisure hours in describing the sorrows of a prisoner in an historical romance, Margherita Pusterla (1838), only less popular than Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi. His magnum opus, the Storia Universale (35 vols. 1836-42), was succeeded by a multitude of works on Italian history and literature, as well as works of a lighter character, and Manzoni: Reminiscenze (2 vols. 1883). He died at Milan, 11th March 1895.