Trilussa

Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano Salustri (26 October 1871 – 21 December 1950), known by the pseudonym Trilussa (an anagram of his last name), was an Italian poet, writer and journalist, particularly known for his works in Romanesco dialect.

Biography

Childhood and education (1871–1886)

Carlo Alberto Camillo Salustri was born in Rome on 26 October 1871. His father, Vincenzo, was a waiter from Albano Laziale, his mother, Carlotta Poldi, was a Bolognese seamstress. He was the second-born child of the Salustri family and was baptized on 31 October in the Church of San Giacomo in Augusta, when the fourth name, Mariano, was added. A year later, in 1872, at the age of three, his sister, Elisabetta, died of diphtheria. His tormented childhood was affected again two years later, on 1 April 1874, by the death of his father Vincenzo. After the death of her husband, Carlotta Poldi decided to move with her son Carlo to Via Ripetta, where they stayed for only eleven months, before moving again to the palace in Piazza di Pietra, belonging to the Marquis Ermenegildo del Cinque, Carlo's godfather. It is believed that Carlo owes his acquaintance with Filippo Chiappini, a Romanesco poet and disciple of Belli, to the Marquis; indeed, Chiappini's sonnet Ar marchese Riminigirdo Der Cinque (To the Marquis Riminigirdo Der Cinque), addressed to Trilussa's godfather, seems to be referring to Carlotta Poldi and her son in the last triplet.

(Filippo Chiappini, Ar marchese Riminigirdo Der Cinque)

In 1877 Carlotta enrolled her son in the San Nicola municipal schools, where Carlo attended first and second grade. Then, in October 1880, he took the examination for admission to the Collegio Poli of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, but having made a simple mistake in subtraction, he was forced to repeat the second year.