Biagio Marin - Early Life

Early Life

He was born on June 29, 1891 in the coastal town of Grado, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian county of Gorizia and Gradisca. His family was a middle class family of modest origins, his father, Antonio Raugna, was an innkeeper. His mother Maria Raugna died early in his life, and he was then raised by his paternal grandmother. In his youth he was a irredentist. He was sent to the gymnasium in Görz, where is education was in German, there he started to write literary texts in German. After Görz he went to study in Venice, and Florence. In Florence he met the writesrs Scipio Slataper, Giani Stuparich, Carlo Stuparich, Umberto Saba and Virgilio Giotti. He started to write for the magazine Voce (Voice),which was then the most famous magazine of its time. There he began to write his first poems in the Venetian-Friulian dialect. In 1912 he starts to study in Vienna. There he reads Russian and Scandinavian authors and meets the Austrian educator Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, who will have great influence in its subsequent choices of study and work. He published the Book "Fiuri de tapo", which is the first serious poetry book in the Venetian-Friulian dialect. During his studies in vienna, there was an Italian student demontration in favor of the Italian University in Triest, where he was sent as the spokesman for the demonstrators to the dean. In the conversation with the dean he declared that he wishes for Austria's defeat in the war. After two Years in Vienna he returns to Florence He participates in debates with his friends Umberto Saba and Scipio Slataper in the Cafe Aragno about the war, and if artists should go to war.