Tommaso Sgricci

Tommaso Sgricci (31 October 1789 – 23 July 1836) was an Italian poet and actor, hugely admired in his time for his talent in improvisation.

Biography Tommaso Sgricci was born in Castiglion Fiorentino, Arezzo (Grand Duchy of Tuscany) into a modest family, from Jacopo, a physician, and the Florentine Assunta Lorenzi. On 6 June 1810, he graduated in law in Pisa.

Tommaso Sgricci was one of the last heirs to the tradition of Italian improvvisatori. He practiced improvisation from an early age, and in 1813, he began a life of touring throughout Italy and even abroad. He knew how to create spontaneous poetry by using the Italian poetic language of prefabricated sentences, and to interpret it spectacularly on stage, declaiming so quickly that his audience can not evaluate the quality of the verse (thus receiving criticism from famous writers of the time, such as Pietro Giordani, a dear friend of Giacomo Leopardi). His good looks, despite a slight lameness, and innate stage presence favored his success as much as his celebrated memory and fantasy.

The greatest scandal happened in 1819 when, at the height of his glory, he came to Rome to be crowned poet on the Capitoline Hill, but he was expelled from the Papal States a few days before this great honor. The official explanation was that he would have criticized the Pope's government, but the rumour of a homosexual scandal spread,

Nevertheless, he continued to perform with great success in Paris, London and Naples.