The Italian poet Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907) was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in literature. His gradual development from youthful revolutionary idealism to later acceptance of a conservative monarchy closely mirrors the course of 19th-century Italian history.

Born in the Tuscan village of Val di Castello, Giosuè Carducci spent his childhood traveling along the coastal plain, where his father was regional physician. Early studies in Florence, which afforded him a solid foundation in Latin and the Italian classics, prepared Carducci for the Teachers College of Pisa, from which he graduated in 1856. After several years of teaching and editing texts, Carducci was appointed to the prestigious chair in Italian literature at the University of Bologna, a post he held until 1904. During his years at Bologna, he participated fully in the intellectual life of his times as poet, critic, parliamentary deputy (1876), and senator (1890).

A powerfully built man whose prominent jaw...