Italian · Advanced
Read Ettore Fieramosca in Italianwith every sentence explained
English title: Ettore Fieramosca, or the Challenge of Barletta
Massimo d'Azeglio · 1833
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About the book
Ettore Fieramosca by Massimo d'Azeglio was first published in 1833. In Passage you read the full text in the original Italian, marked advanced and filed under historical fiction and romance. It runs to about 87,400 words.
Thirteen Italian knights against thirteen French. The honour of a whole nation rides on one battle.
It is 1503, and southern Italy is a battlefield where France and Spain fight for control. In the town of Barletta, held by the Spanish, Italian knights serve under foreign banners. When a French captain sneers that Italians are cowards who cannot fight, the insult cannot go unanswered: a formal challenge is set, thirteen champions against thirteen.
Leading the Italians is Ettore Fieramosca, a brave and noble young captain from Capua. But Ettore carries a secret sorrow, his love for Ginevra, a woman he believed lost to him forever. As the day of the duel approaches, intrigue, treachery and the dangerous ambitions of Cesare Borgia threaten everything he holds dear.
Massimo d'Azeglio's novel, based on the real Disfida di Barletta, was a huge success in the years of the Risorgimento, stirring Italians to dream of unity. Ettore Fieramosca is a rousing tale of chivalry, romance and national pride.
- Author
- Massimo d'Azeglio
- First published
- 1833
- Language
- Italian
- Level
- Advanced
- Genre
- Historical Fiction, Romance
- Length
- About 87,400 words
How it opens
Al cadere d'una bella giornata d'aprile dell'anno 1503 la campana di San Domenico in Barletta sonava gli ultimi tocchi dell'avemaria. Sulla piazza vicina in riva al mare, luogo di ritrovo degli abitanti tranquilli che, nelle terricciuole dei climi meridionali specialmente, sogliono sulla sera essere insieme a barattar parole al sereno per riposarsi dalle faccende del giorno, stavano col fine medesimo dispersi in varj gruppi molti soldati spagnuoli ed italiani, alcuni passeggiando, altri fermi, o seduti, od appoggiati alle barche tirate a secco, delle quali era ingombra la spiaggia, e, com'è costume delle soldatesche d'ogni età e d'ogni nazione, il loro contegno era tale che pareva dire: il mondo è nostro.
Reading Ettore Fieramosca in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in Italian. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked advanced, with richer vocabulary and longer sentences. If it feels heavy, start with an intermediate Italian book and come back to it. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
