Antonio Landi


Antonio Landi was an Italian poet, writer and dramatist of some importance in the European literary, cultural and theatrical scene.
He was a counselor of the Court in Berlin and was the author of a summary in French of the monumental History of Italian literature of Girolamo Tiraboschi.

Biography

He born in Livorno in 1725 and appointed an abbot in 1765. He preached in the collegiate church of Andrew the Apostle in Empoli, but his "immoral" lifestyle won him a rebuke from the Church, and he eventually abandoned the cassock.
He then moved to Berlin in the service of the emperor Frederick II of Prussia, on the recommendation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with the task of composing and adapting stage works for its theater. He also became a court counselor.
At the court in Berlin he was the author of librettos, plays and some historical and literary works such as the Histoire de la littérature d'Italie, an abridged French translation of Tiraboschi, and a history of the Saxon emperors, published in German. He died in Berlin in 1783.

Works

Plays