The Sorrows of Young Werther
The model was Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774). Another influence is Rousseau's "Julie, or the New Heloise" (1761). Foscolo's work was also inspired by the political events that occurred in Northern Italy during the Napoleonic period, when the Treaty of Campoformio forced Foscolo to go into exile from Venice to Milan. The autobiographic elements reflect into the novel.