Arcadian and didactic literature

Sardinian landscape, from Sardegna Digital Library

Around the middle of the century, the House of Savoy finally developed a political strategy that envisioned expansion into the Italian peninsula. They partially abandoned French (which had always been their cultured and official language) and began an intense policy of Italianization.
Sardinia was also affected by this process, and a host of scholars, researchers, teachers, and tutors (almost always clerics and Jesuits) were sent to the island to eradicate Spanish. This resulted—as Giovanni Pirodda argues—in a shift toward the literary trends and movements that were prevalent in Italy at the time.
In particular, the Arcadia movement, which founded an academy in Cagliari, which then extended its influence to Sassari and other major centers. A proponent of this new literary movement was Angelo Francesco Berlendis (1735-1794), a Jesuit, prefect of schools in Sassari, and professor of eloquence at the University of Cagliari.
Even in theater, there was a shift away from Iberian taste toward the Italian-origin Metastasian melodrama. In this context, the works of Antonio Marcello (1730-1799) from Cagliari enjoyed some circulation. He wrote several musical dramas, several of which have since been lost. Confirming the persistence of Iberian culture, despite the dramas being dedicated to Petrarch's Laura, they were all preceded by a sonnet in Spanish. Marcello died in tragic circumstances, stabbed by a thief.
Eighteenth-century Sardinia was experiencing an intense period of change and civil unrest. The cultural innovations (sometimes traumatic) introduced by the new Piedmontese regime were combined with the sincere desire of intellectuals to participate in the island's "rebirth." According to Giuseppe Marci, thanks to this, and to a certain penetration of the new "enlightened" ideas coming from France, there was an interest among island authors in didactic works, that is, in artistic and literary works that were not ends in themselves but contained indications, advice, news, and information that would help the "national Sardinians" (as the inhabitants of the kingdom were called) to recover and move towards progress.
Among these, the Latinist Francesco Carboni (1746-1817) stands out. He was a progressive religious figure close to Gio Maria Angioy, and considered one of the best Latin experts in Europe. He chose the ancient classical language and wrote several works, including "De Sardoa Intemperie" (1772), "La sanità dei letterati" (1774), "De Corallis" (1779), and several volumes of "Carmina," as well as poems in Italian.
Toward the end of the 18th century, several works advocating social and economic improvement on the island emerged, written by Antonio Porqueddu ('Su tesoru de sa Sardigna'), Domenico Simon ('Le piante'), Andrea Manca dell'Arca ('L'agricoltura di Sardegna'), Giuseppe Cossu ('L'moriografia sarda', 'L'eriografia sarda', 'L'origine geografia'), Raimondo Valle ('I tonni'), and Francesco Cetti ('L'analisi naturale di Sardegna').

MONOGRAPHS
A. Manca Dell'Arca, Agricoltura di Sardegna, a cura di G. G. Ortu. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2000 (Bibliotheca Sarda; 59);
G. Cossu, Descrizione geografica della Sardegna, a cura di I. Zedda Macciò. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2000 (Bibliotheca sarda; 57);
F. Cetti, Storia naturale di Sardegna, a cura di A. Mattone e P. Sanna. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2000 (Bibliotheca Sarda; 52).

Update

23/6/2026 - 15:55