Italian poet and novelist, born at Milan; began a sceptic, but became a devout Catholic; wrote a volume of hymns, entitled "Inni Sacri," and a tragedy, "Adelchi," his masterpiece, and admired by Goethe, as also a prose fiction, "I Promessi Sposi," which spread his name over Europe; in 1860 was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy, and was visited by Garibaldi in 1862; he was no less distinguished as a man than as an author (1780-1875).