The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis

work by Foscolo

Also known as: “Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis”

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June 17, 2026

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The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis is an epistolary novel by Ugo Foscolo, first published in 1802. It is considered by some critics to be the first modern Italian novel. The story follows a young man whose love for both a woman and his homeland leads to his suicide.12

The novel expresses Foscolo's disillusionment with Napoleon's political actions, particularly the cession of Venetia to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio. It also reflects a broader disgust with the social and political conditions in Italy during that turbulent era, which encompassed the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The work is reminiscent of Goethe's Werther in its themes of frustrated love and despair.12

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Ugo Foscolo
…lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1970) contains a bitter denunciation of that transaction and shows the author’s disgust with Italy’s social and political situation. Some critics consider this story the first modern Italian novel.
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…lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1970) contains a bitter denunciation of that transaction and shows the author’s disgust with Italy’s social and political situation. Some critics consider this story the first modern Italian novel.
Read More

Italy
The Italian republics of 1796–99
…di Jacopo Ortis (1798; “The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis”). To keep both a hostile Pope Pius VI and the democratic clubs in check, the French occupied Rome in January 1798 and proclaimed a Roman Republic on March 15. Although the democratic Constitutional Club in Rome remained strong, moderate…
Read More
…di Jacopo Ortis (1798; “The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis”). To keep both a hostile Pope Pius VI and the democratic clubs in check, the French occupied Rome in January 1798 and proclaimed a Roman Republic on March 15. Although the democratic Constitutional Club in Rome remained strong, moderate…
Read More

Italian literature
Romanticism
…lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis) was an epistolary story, reminiscent of Goethe’s Werther, of a young man forced to suicide by frustrated love for both a woman and his fatherland. It was extremely moving and popular, as was a poem, “Dei sepolcri” (1807; “On…
Read More
…lettere di Jacopo Ortis (1802; The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis) was an epistolary story, reminiscent of Goethe’s Werther, of a young man forced to suicide by frustrated love for both a woman and his fatherland. It was extremely moving and popular, as was a poem, “Dei sepolcri” (1807; “On…
Read More