Andreas Kalvos (Greek: Ἀνδρέας Κάλβος; 1792 - November 3, 1869) was a contemporary of
Dionysios SolomosDionysios Solomos was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty , of which the first two stanzas became the Greek national anthem...
and one of the greatest
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
s of the 19th century.
Biography
Andreas Kalvos was born in 1792 on
ZakynthosZakynthos , the third largest of the Ionian Islands, covers an area of and its coastline is roughly in length. The island is named after Zakynthos, the son of a legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus. The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin...
to an upper-class mother (Andriani Roukani) and a middle-class adventurer father (Ioannis Kalvos). In 1802 his father took the two children, Andreas and younger Nikolaos, and but not his wife, to
LivornoLivorno or until recently in English Leghorn , is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno and the third-largest port on the western coast of Italy, having a population of approximately 170,000 residents as of the year...
(
Leghorn), to provide to his son Andreas possibilities for better education. There, Andreas first read Greek literature and Greek and Latin antiquity.
In Livorno he wrote his first work,
HymnA hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek , "a song of praise"...
to Napoleon; an antiwar poem, that he later repudiated (this is how we know of its existence, as the poem itself was not saved). Around the same time he lived for a few months in
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, where he worked as a secretary; and then moved to
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
, the centre of intellectual and artistic life of the time. His father died in 1812, and Kalvos's finances were deeply strained. However,, during that year he also met
Ugo FoscoloUgo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was a Greece-born Venetian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
, the most honoured Italian poet and scholar of the era. Foscolo accepted him as his
copyistA copyist is a person who makes written copies. In ancient times, a scrivener was also called a calligraphus . The term's modern use is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript.-Music...
, and put him to teaching a protegé of Foscolo's. Foscolo himself would teach Kalvos
neoclassicismNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
, archaizing ideals, and political
liberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
. In 1813 Kalvos wrote three tragedies in Italian:
TheramenesTheramenes was an Athenian statesman, prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War. He was particularly active during the two periods of oligarchic government at Athens, as well as in the trial of the generals who had commanded at Arginusae in 406 BC...
,
Danaides and
HippiasHippias of Elis was a Greek Sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else...
. He also completed four dramatic monologues, in the neoclassical style. In the end of 1813, Foscolo self-exiles himself at
ZurichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
. Kalvos meets him again there on 1816, when he also learns about the death of his mother, a thing that saddened him deeply as seen in his
OdeOde is a lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode...
to Death. Meanwhile he was composing, from 1814, the
Ode to the Ionians.
By the end of 1816 the two poets travelled together to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and their interaction continues up to February 1817, when the irritable and bitter character of both dissolves their friendship. Kalvos earned a living by giving Italian language lessons and paid translations of religious books, both Italitan and Greek. In 1818–1819 he gave lectures on the correct pronunciation of ancient Greek. He composed and published a modern Greek grammar, an Italian learning method in 4 volumes and deals with the syntax of an English-Greek dictionary.
In May 1819 he married Theresa Thomas who dies one year later. His simultaneous love affair with his student Susan Ridout was a failure, as well. During that time it is speculated that he attempted to commit suicide. He left England at the beginning of 1820.
On September 1820, while returning to Florence, he stopped a short while in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He became involved in the movement of the
CarbonariThe Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. Their goals were patriotic and liberal and they played an important role in the Risorgimento and the early years of Italian nationalism....
and he is arrested and expelled on April 23, 1821. He retreated to
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
, finding support in the philhellene circle of the city. He worked again as a teacher of foreign languages, while publishing of a manuscript of the
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
, that however is not successful. Carried away in the enthusiasm of the outbreak of the Greek revolution he published, in 1824, the first part of his Greek poems,
The Lyre, a collection of ten odes. Almost immediately, the odes were translated into French and find the most favourable reception. In the beginning of 1825, Kalvos returns to Paris where one year later he published ten more odes,
Lyrics, with financial aid of philhellenes.
In the end of July 1826 he travelled to Nauplion. He was disappointed however by the prevailing national disputes and by the indifference of the people towards him and his work. Then in August of the same year, he went to
CorfuCorfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and its northern part lies off the coast of Sarandë, Albania from which it is separated by straits varying in breadth from 3 to 23 km , including one near ancient Butrint, while its southern part lies...
, where he taught in the
Ionian AcademyThe Ionian Academy was the first Greek academic institution established in modern times and it is located in Corfu. It was established by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford in 1824. It is also considered the precursor of the Ionian University. It had Philological, Law and Medical Schools.The...
(
Ionios Akademia); as a private tutor until he was appointed to the Academy in 1836 . He was director of the Corfiot Gymnasium (
Kerkyraiko Gymnasio), during 1841, but resigned by the end of the year; he also contributed to the local newspapers.
For many years, both Kalvos and
Dionysios SolomosDionysios Solomos was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty , of which the first two stanzas became the Greek national anthem...
both lived on Corfu, but the two do not appear to have known each other. This is probably due to his wayward character; the fact he wasn't recognized in his homeland is perhaps also owed to that.
In the end of 1852 Kalvos left Corfu and relocatee himself in
Louth, LincolnshireLouth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...
, England, where he married Charlotte Wadans a year after his arrival. Kalvos died on November 3, 1869.
Works
- Lyre -- Odes of Andreas Kalvos (Λύρα -- ᾨδαὶ Ἀνδρέα Κάλβου) 1824 (text at Greek Wikisource
Wikisource is an online library of free content textual sources, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to harbour all forms of free text, in many languages...
)
- Lyrics (Λυρικά), 1826
- Hippias
- Danaides
- Theramenes
- The Seasons (Le Stagioni -- Giovanni Meli)
- Italian Lessons in Four Parts, 1820
- Ode to the Ionians (ᾨδὴ είς Ἰονίους), 1814
- Plan of the New Principles of Letters (Σχέδιο Νέων Ἀρχῶν τῶν Γραμμάτων)
- Apology for Suicide (Ἀπολογία τῆς Αὐτοκτονίας)
- Introduction to the Differential Calculus (Έρευνα περὶ τῆς Φύσεως τοῦ Διαφορικοῦ Ὑπολογισμοῦ), 1827
- Graces, parts, Foscolo (Χάριτες, ἀποσπάσματα, Φώσκολος), 1846
- Hymn to Napoleon (Ὕμνος πρὸς τὸν Ναπολέοντα), 1813-1815
- Book of Public Prayers (Βιβλίον τῶν Δημοσίων Προσευχῶν), 1820
- Grammar of the Modern Greek Language (Γραμματικὴ τῆς Νέας Ἑλληνικῆς Γλώσσης), 1822
- Liturgia Anglicana Polyglotta (translations), 1821-1826
- Theological Criticism (Ἐπίκρισις Θεολογική), 1849
External links
Sources
Adaptation of the corresponding article in the
Greek version of Wikipedia.