“ Grossi took advantage of the popularity of his Milanese poems to try Italian verse, into which he sought to introduce the moving realism which had given such satisfaction in his earliest compositions; and in this he was entirely successful with his poem Ildegonda (1814) . He next wrote an epic poem, entitled The Lombards in the First Crusade, a work of which Manzoni makes honourable mention in I Promessi Sposi. This composition, which was published by subscription (1826) , attained a success unequalled by that of any other Italian poem within the century. ”