Angelo de Gubernatis

Count Angelo De Gubernatis (7 April 1840 – 26 February 1913) was an Italian man of letters. He was born in Turin and educated there and in Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times.

Life In 1862, he was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Florence, but having married a cousin of the Socialist Bakunin and become interested in his views he resigned his appointment and spent some years in travel. He was reappointed, however, in 1867; and in 1891 he was transferred to the Sapienza University of Rome. He became prominent both as an orientalist, a publicist and a poet.

He founded the (1862), the (1867), the and (1869), the (1876) and the (1883), and in 1887 became director of the . In 1878 he started the .

His Oriental and mythological works include the (1867), the (1868), a famous work on zoological mythology (1872), and another on plant mythology (1878). Between 1881 and 1884 he conceived and directed a magazine for young women titled Cordelia, and in the first issue, he invited readers to send in something to be published. One very early contributor, who later became the magazine's director, was Maria Majocchi who, at that time, preferred the pseudonym Margheritina di Cento and later became widely known as Jolanda.

De Gubernatis also edited the encyclopaedic (1882–1885). His work in verse includes the dramas , , , , , etc.

In later years he published a series of lectures on Italian poetry (1907), and a (1905–1906). He died in Rome, on 26 February 1913.