Pietro Delitala

Pietro Delitala differs from the authors of the same period because he chooses the Italian language, or rather, Tuscany, at a time when this idiom is almost completely abandoned in Sardinia. He was born in 1550 in Bosa in a family of noble origin. The father was Nicolò and the mother Sibilla de Sena, daughter of John Viscount of Sanluri who participated in Leonardo de Alagon's rebellion. He spends most of his life in Italy, as an exile, because of a romantic affair with a married woman that ended badly. In particular, he takes refuge in Siena, with the Piccolomini family, relatives on his mother's side. He is struck by the poetic work of Torquato Tasso, of whom he will remain a faithful admirer. Once the estate has dissipated, he is forced to return to the island where he is arrested for an inquisitorial trial on questions of faith. It is saved from the stake thanks to the intercession of the bishop of Bosa, Giovanni Francesco Fara, founder of Sardinian historiography.
In the introduction to the collection of his 'Different Rimes', published in Cagliari in 1596, he himself excuses himself for using a language that is 'really very alien to us' and 'understood by very few exactly one', instead of 'writing in the Sardinian language as maternal, or Spanish as the most used, and received, on this island of ours'. His poems are aligned with the mannerist styles that were in vogue during the years of his stay in Italy.

Update

23/6/2026 - 15:19