Goffredo Mameli

Goffredo Mameli was born in Genoa on 5 September 1827 to an Admiral of the Sardinian Navy and the Marchesa Adelaide Zoagli Lomellini. Mameli’s house was frequented by various Genoese intellectuals, which certainly influenced the young Goffredo’s education, such as his studies under the guidance of Giuseppe Canale, who was politically active, and then his Scolopian father Agostino Muraglia, who had a liberal orientation. Enrolled at the University of Genoa, Mameli approached Mazzinianism and came into contact with some of the exile’s collaborators, including Nino Bixio. Already during his youth, Mameli manifested his literary skills, composing poems in a romantic style that, from 1847 onwards, he enriched with numerous political cues. In September of the same year he composed the hymn ‘Il Canto degli italiani’ which, set to music by Michele Novaro, was to become the National Anthem of the Italian Republic, best known by its first verse ‘Fratelli d’Italia’.