In 1782, Niccolini was born in
Bagni San Giuliano to a family of limited means. He initiated studied in law at the
University of Pisa, but also pursued studies in classical languages. After graduation, he lived and worked in Florence, partly for the
Accademia della Crusca. The upheavals of the Napoleonic era and the early death of his father led him to seek employment. In 1807, he was named professor of history and mythology at the
Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence. He also served as librarian and tutor. Despite his republican leanings, he was spared retribution by the administration of the returning
Grand Duke Ferdinand III, and obtained a post as Palatine librarian. His earlier, more
neoclassical tragedies, beginning with a
Euripidean Polissena (1810), displaying patriotic, anti-absolutist ideas, were favourably received. A few years later he translated
Aeschylus'
Seven Against Thebes and
Aeschylus'
Agamemnon. Over the years, Niccolini became more attached to the scholarly pre-eminence of classic learning, but also to the pre-eminence of the
Tuscan dialect and writers such as
Dante. In 1817 he became a member of the Accademia della Crusca. In the 1820s, an unexpected inheritance from his maternal family gave him some financial stability. In 1827, his play
Foscarini, was mostly praised by audiences, although maligned by others for presumed
anti-Catholic themes. His next play (1831) based on the controversial history of
Giovanni da Procida, seen in this work as a defender of Italian liberty, faced opposition by both the French and Austrian diplomats. In 1834, he published another tragedy based on events in Italian history of
Ludovico Sforza. This was followed by ''Rosmunda d'Inghilterra
in 1839. In 1847, he published Filippo Strozzi'', in which the Florentine hero fights against foreign forces for the liberty of his Tuscany. In 1846 his play,
Arnold of Brescia: A Tragedy. was translated by the English immigrant
Theodosia Trollope into English and published. This work was also taken up by
Robert Browning. The work evoked the patriotism of those seeking to free Italy from the control of foreign and papal forces. Niccolini was a friend of
Alessandro Manzoni and
Ugo Foscolo. The latter dedicated to him one of his earliest works, the Italian translation of
Catullus'
Coma Berenices (1803). He was one of the founding editors of the Florentine
literary magazines
Il Saggiatore and
Antologia, in which he published many essays. In 1848 Niccolini was appointed to the Tuscan Senate, but from 1848 onwards he took little part in actual politics and eventually accepted the idea of an Italian monarchy. He died in
Florence in 1861. He is buried in the Church of
Santa Croce, Florence close to
Machiavelli. ==Works==