Antonio Fogazzaro (1842-1911), a writer, poet, and essayist, was a major figure in Italian literature and culture. He was a multiple nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature and a key interpreter of Modernism and an Italian approach to Romanticism. Although he was always a Catholic, his works often addressed controversial themes such as reincarnation and the destiny of souls, and he remained open to modern scientific theories.
With his 1859 essay Origin of Species, Charles Darwin delivered a decisive blow to both creationist theories based on biblical tradition and Lamarckian evolutionism. Fogazzaro read Darwin's book in 1889 and was both captivated and disturbed by it. With this in mind, on March 2, 1893, he gave a lecture at the Collegio Romano titled L'origine dell'uomo e il sentimento religioso (The Origin of Man and Religious Sentiment), in the presence of Queen Margherita of Savoy. In the lecture, he reaffirmed his support for Darwin's theory. The text of this lecture was later included by the author in his work Ascensioni umane, published in Milan in 1899.