Dominique-Alexandre Parodi
Dominique-Alexandre Parodi (Domenico Alessandro Parodi in Italian publications) (b. 15 October 1840 - d.1901), known as Alexandre (Alessandro), was a naturalised French writer, poet and dramatist of Graeco-Italian extraction. Biography. He was born in Chania, Crete, to Margarita Vitale and Domenico Parodi. His mother was from Smyrna (now İzmir) in western Anatolia and his father was Genoese, born in Loano, Liguria. He was the fourth of seven children. He lived in Smyrna from 1843 until 1861. He moved to Milan and then Genoa where he married Vittoria d'Aste, daughter of the playwright and granddaughter of the  Genoese printer Antonio Ponthenier. They had two sons: Dominique Hippolyte Tite Marius (b.1870, Genoa) a philosopher and educational administrator, and (b.1874, Bois-Colombes) a pioneering civil electrical engineer. He worked as a journalist and columnist for several Italian newspapers, including "". He settled permanently in Paris in 1871 (and became a naturalized French citizen in 1881) having published his first book in France in 1865. He continued to write poetry and articles for Italian journals, particularly in "L'Illustrazione" under titles such as "Notizie Letterarie" (Literary notices) and "Corriere di parigi" (Paris Courier). He penned various plays, often in verse, some of  which were put to music and in the case of "Rome vaincue" later transformed into an opera, "Roma". He became an inspector of municipal libraries in 1886. He died in Paris in 1901. He was buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles), Paris, survived by his wife and two sons. Legacy. The "Rue du Canal Saint-Martin" in Paris was renamed "" in 1904 in his honour.