Scheda
Francesco Giovanni Sampieri was born on September 13, 1790, only child of senator Luigi and Maria Luisa Vincenza, daughter of Leopoldo Di Gregorio, marquis of Squillace. Orphan of his father when he was 7 and of his mother when he was 14, he developped interests in musical field and social life. In 1807, he joined the Accademia Filarmonica as a composer, starting, following the trend of that time, especially by producing operas: a production bound to be dilettantish but accurate, along with the spreading Rossini’s fashion. In 1818, in Rome he married his cousin Anna De Gregorio and, as De’ Buoi (p. 304) says, «per ricostruirsi il Palazzo Sampieri dalla Mercanzia andò ad abitare alla bella villa di Casalecchio» («to rebuild Palazzo Sampieri dalla Mercanzia, he went to live in the beautiful villa in Casalecchio»). In 1829, an only daughter, Carolina (presented to the baptismal font by Carolina, duchess of Berry), was born of the marriage, then she got married to the French count Dionigio Talon and died in 1916. He was knight of the military order of St. Stephen and of the Jerusalem Holy Sepulchre. He spent most of his late years in Paris and in 1861 he got the french citizenship. He died of gout on October 19, 1863 in Bologna, after a useless parenthesis in Naples, trying to cure himself (Monari Rocca, In morte; Calore, Francesco Sampieri; Rossi, La Sampireina; Migliorini, L’amico; Sani, Bologna di ieri, pp. 168-170).
