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Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877)

BC MS NCC/9/2/43 Edward Petre Novello self portrait studies
Biographies of members of the Novello, Cowden Clarke and Gigliucci families; an extraordinary Anglo-Italian family of artists, musicians, writers, publishers and actors of the long nineteenth century.
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BC MS NCC/1/3/1 Portrait of Giuseppe 'Joseph' Novello
Giuseppe ‘Joseph’ Novello was an Italian confectioner and pastry cook who moved to London in 1771.
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BC MS NCC/9/4/1 Proof engraving of Vincent Novello
Vincent Novello was a musician, composer and music publisher.
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LEEUAT050 Ritratto del Sig 'Cowden Clarke' (Portrait of Charles Cowden Clarke)
Charles Cowden Clarke was an writer, lecturer and Shakespeare scholar alongside his wife, Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke (née Novello).
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BC MS NCC/3/5/2 Watercolour portrait of Mary Sabilla Novello
Mary Sabilla Novello (née Hehl) was married to Vincent Novello and supported their education and careers of their children. She wrote an important diary of their travels across Europe in the summer of 1829.
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BC MS NCC/19/11/43 Carte de visite of Thomas James Serle
Thomas James Serle was an actor, dramatist and journalist, who married Cecilia Novello.
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BC MS NCC/4/8/3 Engraved portrait of Mary Cowden Clarke
Mary Victora Cowden Clarke (née Novello) was a writer and Shakespeare scholar alongside her husband, Charles Cowden Clarke.
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BC MS NCC/7/8/2 Carte de visite of (Joseph) Alfred Novello
(Joseph) Alfred Novello was a music publisher and first son of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/9/7/7 Miniature portrait of Cecilia Serle (née Novello)
Cecilia Serle (née Novello) was the second daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/9/1/55 Watercolour sketch of a self-portrait by Edward Petre Novello
Edward Petre Novello was an artist and the second son of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/10/4/1 untitled oil sketch [portrait of Emma Aloysia Novello by Henry Sass]
Emma Aloysia Novello was an artist and third daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/11/2/1 Photograph of Giovanni Battista Gigliucci and Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello)
Conte Giovanni Battista Gigliucci was an Italian politician born to an aristocratic family in Fermo.
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BC MS NCC/12/7/2 Proof print of Clara Anastasia Novello engraved by William Humphreys
Clara Anastasia Novello was an internationally-recognised soprano and the fourth daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/13/9/15 Pencil and watercolour portrait of (Mary) Sabilla Novello
Mary Sabilla Novello, known as Sabilla to distinguish her from her mother, was the youngest surviving daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/15/2/1 Photographic reproduction of a portrait of Giovanni Gigliucci
Conte Giovanni Gigliucci was the first son of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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BC MS NCC/16/2/2 Carte de visite of Porzia Gigliucci as 'Thalia'
Contessa Porzia Gigliucci was born in 1845, the eldest daughter and second child of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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Emma Clara Serle was the eldest surviving daughter of Cecilia Serle (née Novello) and Thomas James Serle.
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BC MS NCC/17/1/1 Photographic reproduction of a portrait of Mario Gigliucci
Conte Mario Gigliucci was the second son and third child of Clara Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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BC MS NCC/18/2/2 Carte de visite of Valeria Gigliucci as 'Mirth'
Contessa Valeria Gigliucci was born in 1849, the fourth and youngest child of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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Charles Cowden Clarke was born on 15 December 1787. His father John Clarke was headmaster of a private school in Enfield and the family home was adjacent to the school. Charles was a student there and began to assist his father as a teacher. He was known for radical politics and contemporaries were concerned that he passed on these ideas to his students, but he was remembered by them for his knowledge of literature and music.

At Enfield School he taught and became friends with John Keats and his mentorship influenced Keat’s development as a poet. He stopped teaching in around 1815 and moved to London, where he became part of literary, musical and theatrical circles. He was a lodger at the Novello family home at Shacklewell Green and brought literary figures into the Novello’s lives. He introduced them to their second lodger, Edward Holmes (1797-1859), who became Vincent Novello’s pupil as an organist and later became a music critic. He taught the Novello children and introduced them to English literature.

He became embedded in the Novello’s family life and was known to them as ‘Charley’. He was engaged to Mary Victoria Novello on 1 November 1826 and they married on 5 July 1828 at Bloomsbury Church. They lived initially with the Novellos at Craven Hill Cottage in Bayswater, where Charles pursued a career as a writer. In 1834 he began to give public lectures, which he continued for 20 years. He was considered to be particularly good at this role and spoke about a variety of literary subjects.

He moved to Nice with his wife and her brother (Joseph) Alfred Novello in 1856 and on to Genoa in Italy in 1861, where they lived at Villa Novello and continued to write and edit, both on his own and in collaboration with his wife, including important works on Shakespeare. He died on 13 March 1877 and is buried in Genoa.