Giosuè Borsi

Giosuè Borsi (1 June 1888 – 10 November 1915) was an Italian writer and poet.

Biography

Giosuè Borsi was born in Livorno, the son of Averardo Borsi, a journalist and his wife Verdiana Fabbri. He was named after Giosuè Carducci, who was a friend of his father and who was his companion. He lived with his family in an environment of anticlericalism and agnosticism. Gifted with ingenuity, quick to learn, easy to express himself, Borsi manifested predilection for the beautiful letters, the refined composition, the linguistic culture.

Borsi frequented Livorno's artistic environment, became friend of the family Domenici, and the spiritual father of the painter Carlo Domenici. He convinced Cesare Domenici of the artistic talent of his son Carlo, insisting that the young artist could access the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.

He finished his studies at the Liceo Classico Niccolini Guerrazzi in Livorno in 1907, year in which he published the collection of poems, Primus fons. He studied Jurisprudenceat the University of Pisa, lived for some time in Rome and graduated in Urbino in 1913. The first phase of his life was characterized by literary and worldly success, in great part thanks to his elegance in dress and pleasantness in conversation, in addition to his refinement as a writer and fine speaker of Dante.

His father in the meantime had become director of the newspaper Nuovo Giornale in Florence. However, on December 23, 1910 Averardo Borsi died suddenly, leaving on Giosuè's shoulders the onerous direction of the paper. On June 18, 1912, after a long melancholy, his sister Laura also passed away, followed in 1913, by Dino, her five years old son. Giosuè remained with his mother and younger brother, Gino. These blows of misfortune acted on Giosuè's spirit as a call to the seriousness of life, and were the first start to the adhesion to the principles of Christianity and the doctrine of the Church.

Between 1912 and 1913, he wrote Confessioni a Giulia, giving this name to his ideal woman as Dante did with Beatrice. In 1914, he met Father Guido Alfani of the Pious Schools and read Alessandro Manzoni's Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica ("Observations on Catholic Morals") and Pascal's Thoughts. He received the habit of Franciscan Tertiary in Florence in the church of the Calasanziane Sisters.

The crisis of World War I gave him an ideal glimpse of sacrifice in the field; he was an interventionist for patriotic reasons. Enlisted as a volunteer, as a second lieutenant of the Territorial Militia, he was assigned to the 125th Infantry Regiment "Spezia", 4th company, where he was well liked by the soldiers, young people often poorly educated. He died on November 10, 1915 in an assault in Zagora. In his jacket were found bloody medals, the photo of his mother and an edition of the Divine Comedy.

Works

• Primus Fons (1907)
• Scruta obsoleta (1910)
• Il Testamento spirituale (1915)
• Colloqui (1916)
• Lettere dal fronte (1916)
• Il Capitano Spaventa (1917)
• Confessioni a Giulia (1920)
• Fiorrancino (1921)
• Novelle (1921)
• Versi 1905-12 (1922)
• La vita di San Cristoforo ed altri racconti (1938)
• I colloqui (1977)

References

• Giovanni Ansaldo, Dizionario degli italiani illustri e meschini dal 1870 ad oggi. Milano: Longanesi (1980).
• Antonio Cojazzi, Giosuè Borsi. Torino: Società Editrice Internazionale (1930).
• Freddy Colt, "Giosuè Borsi: un ragazzo di 100 anni fa." In: Il Capitano Spaventa. Ventimiglia: Philobiblon (2006).
• H.B.L. Hughes, "Giosuè Borsi," The Catholic World, Vol. CXXV, No. 749 (1927).
• Erika Lunghi, Un poeta al fronte. Giosuè Borsi. Firenze Libri Atheneum, Imperia (2009).

External links

• Borsi, Giosuè
• Bórsi, Giosuè