sonnets contained therein were all from the hand of Carducci, and the same touch is discernible in much of the main discourse.
That same autumn (1856), we find the poet installed as Instructor of Rhetoric in the Ginnasio of San Miniato al Tedesco. While there he published (1857) his first volume of poetry—by the persuasion of one of his friends and fellow teachers and for the sole purpose, as he himself tells us,[1] of paying his and the said friend's debts for lodging and at the café. Soon after, he left San Miniato, "and the 'Verses' remained exposed to the pity of Franceseco Silvio Orlandini, to the scorn of Paolo Emilano Giudici, to the insults of Pietro Fanfani."[2]
Graver responsibilities now devolved upon Carducci. In 1858 his father died, and he was left alone to support his mother, a sister, and a younger brother. Undismayed, he entered the battle. Florence was the home of his choice; there, when he married in 1859, he brought wife and family; there he studied, gave lessons,
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