Giovanni Pascoli was born in San Mauro Pascoli on 31 December 1855. He was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. He was, together with Gabriele D'Annunzio, the greatest Italian decadent poet. From 1897 to 1903 he taught Latin at the University of Messina, and then in Pisa. He became professor of Italian literature at the University of Bologna, taking the position of Giosu� Carducci when he retired. In 1912, Pascoli died of liver cancer at the age of 56 in Bologna.
