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Storiascopio · Era 10 of 12 · lower secondary year 2

Manzoni's The Betrothed

1827 · Milan, Italy

Illustration: Manzoni's The Betrothed

In short

Alessandro Manzoni, a writer from Milan, told the story of Renzo and Lucia, two young people from a village on Lake Como who are prevented from marrying by a bullying local lord, Don Rodrigo. The novel is set in the 17th century, amid famine, war and plague, when Lombardy was under Spanish rule. The first edition came out between 1825 and 1827; then Manzoni rewrote it in a language closer to the Florentine spoken at the time. The final edition was published between 1840 and 1842.

Why it matters It helped to build a shared Italian language, and it is still studied in every Italian school today.

Source: Treccani, entry “Promessi sposi, I”

Where we are in the era “Age of revolutions”

Your turn

Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________

  1. When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:

  2. Tell it in your own words: what happened?

  3. Draw the scene below.

storiascopio.com/en/event/manzoni-s-the-betrothed/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class