History
Giovanni Pascoli was born on December 31, 1855, in San Mauro, Romagna. In 1867, his father Ruggero was shot on the road returning from Cesena; the assassin was never found. This grief weighs on his poetry: his first collection, Myricae, was published in 1891.
A student of Giosuè Carducci at the University of Bologna, he earned his degree there in 1882, then taught Latin in Messina and later Pisa, succeeding Carducci in Bologna. He published Il fanciullino in 1897 and Canti di Castelvecchio in 1903. His Latin poems won international awards.
Pascoli died in Bologna on April 6, 1912, at age 56. For the centenary of his death, Italy dedicated one of its 2-Euro commemorative coins to him in 2012, struck in Rome and minted at 15,000,000 examples.