Dante and Italy in works of D. Yu. Struyskiy

The article deals with literary works of a poet, musical critic, composer D. Yu. Struyskiy (1806 - 1856), devoted to the author of “The Divine comedy” and his native land, a treasury of various arts. Among them are, in particular, two rhymes (“Dante's farewell to Florence”, “Dante on the border of the native land”), fragments from uncompleted Struyskiy's poem “Dante”, created presumably in the middle of 1830s when the writer travelled to Italy, visiting Rome, Florence, Milan, Bologna and other cities. They were published in 1845 in “Moskvityanin” magazine through the mediation of known italianist and dantologist S. P. Shevyrev (1806-1864), a friend of Struyskiy since university years. His impressions of Italian art were represented in the article named “Fragments from the travelling notes from Italy and Germany and thoughts about the last exhibition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts”, printed in the “Literary addendum to “The Russian invalid” journal in 1837. At the same time Struyskiy intends to read “The divine Comedy” of Dante, what is evident from his correspondence with his old friend, a writer and a music critic V. F. Odoevsky (1804-1869), whose rich library the poet regularly used. It is probably namely Italy, with its miraculous musical culture, inspired the first experiments of Struyskiy as a composer. It is noteworthy that his opera “Parasha The Siberian” (1840) resonated thematically with the opera on a popular “Russian” plot of Italian maestro G. Donizetti (1797-1848) “Exiles in Siberia” (1827). It is possible that the composers were acquainted.