A Monument to G.G. Belli: The People's Poet

Piazza Giuseppe Gioachino Belli

Monument to Giuseppe Gioachino Belli by Michele Tripisciano

---

On December 21st 1863, the Roman poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli died. Belli was famous for his sonnets, which he penned in Romanesco, the local dialect.  

In the district of Trastevere, in a piazza which bears his name, stands a monument (1913) to Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, the signed work of the Sicilian sculptor Michele Tripisciano (1860-1913). 

Belli wrote more than 2,000 sonnets about the ordinary people of his native city in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.

The monument, which comprises a fountain, was financed by popular subscription and erected to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. The inscription reads: AL SVO POETA  / G.G. BELLI / IL POPOLO DI ROMA / MCMXIII (To its poet G. G. Belli, the people of Rome 1913). 

The base sports two bas-reliefs. The bas-relief at the front depicts the river Tiber, accompanied by the She-wolf sucking Romulus and Remus; at the back a group of people gather around 'Pasquino', Rome's famous talking statue. 

---

Monument to Giuseppe Gioachino Belli by Michele Tripisciano