births
January 16, 1749
Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright (died 1803)
Vittorio Alfieri
Count Vittorio Amedeo Alfieri was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy." He wrote nineteen tragedies, sonnets, satires, a notable autobiography, and translated Virgil and other works from Latin and Greek. Alfieri's work exerted a profound influence on British Romantic poetry.