Mercantini, Luigi

Born Sept. 20, 1821, in Ripatransone, Marche region; died Nov. 17, 1872, in Palermo. Italian poet.

Mercantini took part in the Revolution of 1848-49 and was an ardent supporter of G. Garibaldi. His revolutionary and romantic lyric poetry, which first appeared in 1848, is highly emotional. Mercantini’s ballad The Woman Reaper From Sapri (1857) was translated into Russian prose by A. I. Herzen in his My Past and Thoughts (ch. 37); his “Garibaldi’s Hymn” (1860) was translated into Russian by L. Mei as “The Italian National Anthem” (1862).