Paolo Antonio Rolli

• Name — Paolo Rolli • Born — 13 June 1687 • Birthplace — Rome, Papal States • Died — 20 March 1765 • Place of death — Todi, Papal States • Resting Place — San Fortunato, Todi • Occupation — * Poet • intellectual • librettist • Education — Roman College

Paolo Rolli was born in Rome, Italy, on 13 June 1687, to Philippe Roleau, an architect from Burgundy, and Marta Arnaldi. His early education was from the church, and later at the Roman College, and occasional references to 'l'abate Rolli' suggest he may have taken minor orders. His studies were completed under the jurist and dramatist Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, one of the founders of the reformist Academy of Arcadia, from whom Rolli (and his fellow student Metastasio) absorbed the ideals of neoclassicism. Gravina and his pupils were active members of the Arcadian Academy until they came into conflict with its head, Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, after which they founded the Quirinian Academy. His first publication, Componimenti poetici (1711), is an edition of Arcadian poetry. Rolli produced his first dramatic work, the serenata Sacrificio a Venere, set by Giovanni Bononcini, at Rome in 1714. In 1715 he adapted Apostolo Zeno's Astarto, also set by Bononcini, for the Teatro Capranica.

In 1715 Rolli was invited to England by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington. Through his various literary activities he worked to foster English appreciation of the language and classic literature of Italy. He taught Italian and Italian literature to several English noble families. In 1727 Caroline of Ansbach appointed him Italian tutor of her children Frederick, Amelia and Caroline. The many peers to whom he dedicated his works and who subscribed to his 1725 London edition of Boccaccio's Decameron indicate the range of his British contacts and patrons. In London Rolli published original poetry and Italian translations and editions of classics not otherwise available, including works of Anacreon, Virgil, Boccaccio, Ariosto, a group of Italian satirists, and Marchetti's famous Italian translation of Lucretius (1717). His Italian translations and editions served both scholarly and pedagogic aims by giving English students easily understandable classic Italian texts. 'Solitario bosco ombroso' in Di canzonette e di cantate (1727) was long considered a model of classical perfection in Italian lyric poetry. In his autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth), Goethe writes that he learned it by heart even before he knew a word of Italian. Rolli's most important contribution to Italian letters, his translation of Milton's Paradise Lost, is its first complete Italian translation; Rolli's preface and life of Milton are pioneering pieces of Italian Milton criticism. Despite omissions to avoid offending Roman Catholic sensibilities, the translation landed on the Index. Rolli's translation is literal and smooth, although literalness often overrides the poetic. The first six books, in folio, appeared in London in 1729; the revised, complete poem appeared in 1735 adorned with three portraits, and was dedicated to Frederick, prince of Wales, who supported the publication with £100. The translation quickly acquired a European reputation and was frequently reprinted. In December 1729 Rolli was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Upon the death of queen Caroline, his royal protectress, in 1737, Rolli left England and returned to Italy, where he published further verse and translations, notably of Racine's plays and Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms (1757). He settled in Todi, his mother's ancestral home, which had granted him a patent of nobility in 1735. There he spent his last 21 years, with no further involvement in theatrical activities. He died at Todi on 20 March 1765, and was buried there. A posthumous collection of epigrams, Marziale in Albion (1776), satirizes many literary and musical figures of Rolli's London days.

• Illustration — Title page of the libretto of Rolli's Polifemo

The names of the first composers to set the respective texts to music are indicated next to the title • Muzio Scevola (1721) – George Frideric Handel • Floridante (1721) – George Frideric Handel • Scipione (1726) – George Frideric Handel • Alessandro (1726) – George Frideric Handel • Riccardo Primo (1727) – George Frideric Handel • Polifemo (1735) – Nicola Porpora • La festa d'Imeneo (1736) – Nicola Porpora • Orfeo (1736) – Nicola Porpora • Deidamia (1741) – George Frideric

• Del paradiso perduto. Poema inglese di Giovanni Milton, London, Presso Carlo Bennet, 1736. • Gli amanti interni; commedia Inglese, London, 1724. Translation of Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers.