Porta was born in Milan to Giuseppe Porta and Violante Gottieri, a merchant family. He studied in Monza until 1792 and then in the Seminario of Milan. In 1796, the Napoleonic Warspushed Porta to find a job in Venice and he remained there until 1799. From 1804 until his death, Porta worked as government employee, although he would have been pleased to keep on studying. In 1806, he married Vincenza Prevosti. He died in Milan in January 1821 from an attack of gout and was buried in the Church of San Gregorio. His tomb was subsequently lost, but his tombstone Is still conserved in the vault of San Gregorio church, in Milan.
Works
Porta began to write poems in 1790, although few of them were published before 1810. In 1804-1805 he worked at a Milanese translation of the Divine Comedy, which he, however, left unfinished. In these years the progressive group that formed round him and called themselves the "Cameretta Portiana" included Giuseppe Bossi, who painted a group portrait of four Amici della Cameretta Portiana. In 1810, Brindisi de Meneghin all'Ostaria was published. This was one of many works by Porta featuring Meneghino. His best season began two years later, with Desgrazzi de Giovannin Bongee. His works can be divided into three categories: works against superstition and religious hypocrisy, descriptions of vivid Milanese popular characters, and political works. The first one includes Fraa Zenever, On Miracol, Fraa Diodatt, La mia povera nonna la gh'aveva. His political satires were mainly sonnets, such as Paracar che scappee de Lombardia, E daj con sto chez-nous, ma sanguanon , Marcanagg i politegh secca ball, Quand vedessev on pubblegh funzionari. Porta satirized the upcoming new Milanese aristocracy, too, in La nomina del cappellan, making a parody of the episode of the "vergine cuccia" in Il Giorno , by Giuseppe Parini. His best works are probably those portraying the Milanese popular life, with the collections Olter desgrazzi de Giovannin Bongee , El lament del Marchionn di gamb avert and what is generally considered his masterwork, La Ninetta del Verzee, a meaningful and heartbreaking monologue/confession of a prostitute. In 1816 Porta joined the Romantic literarian movement, obviously in his own way: in the very last strophe, he called himself a dumb, meaning instead the opposite. But see the following issue.
Curiosity
It was in honor of Carlo Porta that Alessandro Manzoni, the father of the contemporary Italian language, wrote his only poem in the Lombard language, namely: On badee ch’el voeur fà de sapientôn / el se toeu subet via per on badee; / ma on omm de coo ch’el voeur parè minciôn / el se mett anca luu in d'on bell cuntee.
