
Giacomo Leopardi, Count (June 29, 1798 – June 14, 1837) was a major Italian language Romanticism poet, often considered alongside Dante and Petrarch as Italy's greatest poets. ==Early life== Born in Recanati, Italy, he was a son of Monaldo Leopardi, a minor nobleman of a small village in Marches that at the time was ruled by the papacy. Giacomo's mother was the marquise Adelaide Antici, and by all accounts, was a harsh and domineering woman. He grew up in practical isolation, with his father and a few priests as teachers. The father was extremely influential to the poet: perhaps a man of limited practical sense, he lost most of his patrimony in failed businesses, but assembled an expensive and extraordinary library that was opened to the public in 1812. Giacomo's loneliness, made worse by the formality of family manners (from the age of six, he was made to dress in black like his father), drove him into his father's library, where he read widely. By the age of ten he no longer needed tutors, and by the time he was 17 he had mastered many areas of knowledge. He later referred to this devotion to study as "seven years of mad and desperate study". Nevertheless, it resulted in a great knowledge of classical languages (he learned at least seven languages, including Hebrew language), and also history, philosophy, philology, natural sciences, and astronomy. The long periods of study in an unhealthy environment may have contributed to his asthma and scoliosis, and his weak eyesight was attributed to reading by candlelight. Leopardi began work as a translator (mainly of ancient classical works - notably a version of Horace's ''Ars Poetica'' in ''ottava rima''). He also wrote some minor treatises such as a ''History of Astronomy'' (1813) and an essay on ''Essay on the Popular Errors of the Ancients'' (1815), both interesting works with plenty of curious facts and anecdotes. He also wrote a pseudo-Greek poem (''Scherzi epigrammatici''). In 1816 he wrote to the ''Biblioteca Italiana'' (literary magazine), defending the position of Italian classicists in answer to the famous assertions of Madame de Staël about translations and academic poetry. This was when he is considered to have passed "from erudition to beauty", from study to poetry and other composition, abandoning aseptic philology and the false taste of Arcadian literary movement in favor of a fresh neoclassical modern style. ==Emergence of the poet== It was during this time (July 1817) that he started writing the ''Zibaldone'', his immense collection of thoughts and verses, which eventually numbered more than 4,000 pages. He also began his correspondence with the Abate Pietro Giordani, whom he had met by sending Giordani a copy of his translation of the ''Aeneid''. His friendship with Giordani, at the time one of the leading literary figures in Italy, proved to be the turning point in Leopardi's life, as it introduced him personally to the intellectual life beyond the narrow confines of Recanati. The correspondence with Giordani, carried out over many years, reveals the growth of Leopardi's intellect, but the proportional depth of his unhappiness with his personal circumstances. Leopardi's first public acclaim came from two early patriotic ''canti'', written in 1818. The first, ''All'Italia'', is a lengthy (and by modern standards, perhaps bombastic) recounting of Italy's past glories and a call to reclaim them. Its success was not for literary reasons alone, as Italy at the time was highly fragmented politically and partially under foreign occupation. Similarly, in his ode, ''Sopra il monumento di Dante'', the great poet's ghost is called up and shown how low the land has fallen. In 1819 Leopardi tried to run away from home, but his father discovered his plan and stopped him. His isolation, physical suffering (which included temporary blindness), and the oppression of being confined in his household led him into depths of despair. But out of this dark period the poet, now in his twenty-first year, began to write with greater depth and maturity. In 1819, he wrote six of the early ''Idilli'', including ''L'Infinito'' and ''Alla luna'', all of them considered masterpieces of lyric poetry, and the following year wrote another patriotic poem, ''Ad Angelo Mai.'' In 1821, he completed ''La vita solitaria'', often considered the last of the early ''Idylls'', and five long poems that Carducci referred to as ''Canzoni-Odi'' and that were published in 1824. He also developed his philosophical theory about pleasure (''piacer, figlio d'affanno'' - pleasure is son to worry, to anguish, and it requires great labor to achieve). ==Life beyond Recanati== In 1822 his father allowed him to leave Recanati for a brief stay in Rome, but the poet was unhappy and could not find a suitable job. He was soon back in the ''palazzo'', having lost his faith. The ornate celebrations of the Papacy's temporal power that he had seen in Rome were another disgusting element that prompted his return. Before leaving Rome, however, Leopardi had become well known, and his work was appreciated. With the composition of his ''Operette Morali'', Leopardi put into his works his saddest philosophical thoughts, and his ''historical pessimism'' (rationality as a cause for unhappiness) and his ''cosmic pessimism'' (nature as the source of human troubles because it gives illusions -- ''Ahi Natura, Natura, perché non rendi poi, quel che prometti allor?'') were rendered in their complex entirety. In 1825 he finally left Recanati for Milan, where he started working for an editor, Fortunato Stella. Then he visited Bologna (vainly following the countess Teresa Malvezzi, who fascinated him) and Florence, Italy, where he met Alessandro Manzoni (the other great Italian poet of the century), Viesseux, and Gioberti. In Pisa he wrote ''A Silvia''. In 1830 some friends provided him with a regular stipend, which allowed him to finally forget Recanati and establish himself in Florence. Here he fell in love (this time more seriously) with Fanny Targioni Tozzetti (another married woman), but his love was unrequited. In Florence he met Antonio Ranieri, a Neapolitan gentleman in exile, with whom he later visited Naples which his friend suggested would help him with its warm climate. In Naples he discovered a genuine passion for ice cream, the affection that Ranieri's sister Paolina showed him (in the Ranieris' villa Ferrigni on the slopes of Vesuvius), and the valued confidence of Basilio Puoti (the ''purista''). He died of edema in Naples, Italy a few months later. ==Major works== His major works include the ''Zibaldone'', the ''Operette Morali'' (a collection of short stories), and the ''Canti'' collection of poems. He held a pessimistic view of nature as a bad mother always on the verge of destroying humanity, while happiness came from the absence of pain (as expressed in ''La quiete dopo la tempesta'' where he says "piacer figlio d'affanno" (pleasure son of pain)). {| width="35%" align="right" cellpadding="5" class="noprint" style="float:right; clear:both; border:solid #008 2px; margin:0em 0em 0.5em 0.5em; width:35%;" |- | | width="100%" | '''Wikisource has poems by ''Wikisource:Autore:Giacomo Leopardi'''''. |} ==References== Origo, Iris. ''Leopardi: A Study in Solitude''. Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London, 1953. Leopardi, Giacomo. ''The Canti, with a selection of his prose'' (trans. J.G. Nichols). Carcanet Press, Ltd. Manchester, 1998. ==External link== *[http://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2005/02/infinite.html "The Infinite"] and [http://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2005/02/to-himself_14.html "To Himself"] by Giacomo Leopardi (translations by Gilbert Wesley Purdy). *[http://www.geocities.com/leopardileopardi/p.html Several works in English] 1798 births1837 deathsItalian poets
Marj, Deep thanks for your help with my bad text. I realise I used a very confused "italianish" language - ooops! :-) About Leopardi and Coleridge, I don't think they were able to meet, as I have read (on the timeline in your site at Virginia.edu) that Coleridge was not in Italy in the years in which Leopardi was travelling. There are some differences among the sources about Leopardi's travels, indeed, but approximately the periods should however be around 1822 (Rome) and 1825-1837. A google search made me find references to many works that compare them, and at a first sight it seems there is something to investigate. Unfortunately, on my side I am not so fond of Coleridge, but now I have found an interesting site :-) Talking about his passage from erudition to beauty, I intended saying that Leopardi left the style of ''Arcadia'' for the newer one (which effectively was beginning to sound as an archaism at the time). Arcadia was the name of a movement (named after the region, supposed a bucolic symbol) that was born in Rome as a reaction to baroque in literature, with Metastasio as its major writer. At the time Leopardi started writing, it was quite influential to him, but he later realised the false (formal, somehow mannerist) taste of Arcadia and abandoned it for a more linear composing style (also, the passage was from a study-focused activity, to a prevalence of composition). I don't know if Arcadia is known abroad, whether it eventually is called in some other way, and I wonder if it's worth an article on Wikipedia, being a minor movement of italian literature and I haven't found many others here yet. --user:Gianfranco :I checked the indices of some of my Coleridge books, and he doesn't seem to have known of Leopardi. It would be interesting if they had met - they seem to have had a lot in common. Sorry about the archaic/Arcadia mixup - using archaic language in poetry was popular around the turn of the 18th-19th century in the UK, at least. -- user:Marj Tiefert, Tuesday, April 9, 2002 == I dolci di Giacomo == This article would lead one to believe that Leopardi only developed a taste for ice-cream after arriving in Naples. While it's true that he celebrates a particular ice-cream maker in a satirical poem from the Neapolitan period (I nuovi credenti-- "The born-agains"), Iris Origo's biography of the poet puts forward the case that Leopardi had an insatiable sweet-tooth from very early on. His father complains about the boy's habit of using sugar less as a sweetener than as a thickening agent in his coffee. Evidently, it was a lifelong addiction. --[mailto:jakespatz@hotmail.com Spatz]
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Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Leopardi, Count (June 29, 1798 – June 14, 1837) was a major Italian language Romanticism poet, often considered alongside Dante and Petrarch as Italy's greatest poets. ==Early life== Born in Recanati, Italy, he was a son of Monaldo Leopardi, a minor nobleman of a small village in Marches that at the time was ruled by the papacy. Giacomo's mother was the marquise Adelaide Antici, and by all accounts, was a harsh and domineering woman. He grew up in practical isolation, with his father and a few priests as teachers. The father was extremely influential to the poet: perhaps a man of limited practical sense, he lost most of his patrimony in failed businesses, but assembled an expensive and extraordinary library that was opened to the public in 1812. Giacomo's loneliness, made worse by the formality of family manners (from the age of six, he was made to dress in black like his father), drove him into his father's library, where he read widely. By the age of ten he no longer needed tutors, and by the time he was 17 he had mastered many areas of knowledge. He later referred to this devotion to study as "seven years of mad and desperate study". Nevertheless, it resulted in a great knowledge of classical languages (he learned at least seven languages, including Hebrew language), and also history, philosophy, philology, natural sciences, and astronomy. The long periods of study in an unhealthy environment may have contributed to his asthma and scoliosis, and his weak eyesight was attributed to reading by candlelight. Leopardi began work as a translator (mainly of ancient classical works - notably a version of Horace's ''Ars Poetica'' in ''ottava rima''). He also wrote some minor treatises such as a ''History of Astronomy'' (1813) and an essay on ''Essay on the Popular Errors of the Ancients'' (1815), both interesting works with plenty of curious facts and anecdotes. He also wrote a pseudo-Greek poem (''Scherzi epigrammatici''). In 1816 he wrote to the ''Biblioteca Italiana'' (literary magazine), defending the position of Italian classicists in answer to the famous assertions of Madame de Staël about translations and academic poetry. This was when he is considered to have passed "from erudition to beauty", from study to poetry and other composition, abandoning aseptic philology and the false taste of Arcadian literary movement in favor of a fresh neoclassical modern style. ==Emergence of the poet== It was during this time (July 1817) that he started writing the ''Zibaldone'', his immense collection of thoughts and verses, which eventually numbered more than 4,000 pages. He also began his correspondence with the Abate Pietro Giordani, whom he had met by sending Giordani a copy of his translation of the ''Aeneid''. His friendship with Giordani, at the time one of the leading literary figures in Italy, proved to be the turning point in Leopardi's life, as it introduced him personally to the intellectual life beyond the narrow confines of Recanati. The correspondence with Giordani, carried out over many years, reveals the growth of Leopardi's intellect, but the proportional depth of his unhappiness with his personal circumstances. Leopardi's first public acclaim came from two early patriotic ''canti'', written in 1818. The first, ''All'Italia'', is a lengthy (and by modern standards, perhaps bombastic) recounting of Italy's past glories and a call to reclaim them. Its success was not for literary reasons alone, as Italy at the time was highly fragmented politically and partially under foreign occupation. Similarly, in his ode, ''Sopra il monumento di Dante'', the great poet's ghost is called up and shown how low the land has fallen. In 1819 Leopardi tried to run away from home, but his father discovered his plan and stopped him. His isolation, physical suffering (which included temporary blindness), and the oppression of being confined in his household led him into depths of despair. But out of this dark period the poet, now in his twenty-first year, began to write with greater depth and maturity. In 1819, he wrote six of the early ''Idilli'', including ''L'Infinito'' and ''Alla luna'', all of them considered masterpieces of lyric poetry, and the following year wrote another patriotic poem, ''Ad Angelo Mai.'' In 1821, he completed ''La vita solitaria'', often considered the last of the early ''Idylls'', and five long poems that Carducci referred to as ''Canzoni-Odi'' and that were published in 1824. He also developed his philosophical theory about pleasure (''piacer, figlio d'affanno'' - pleasure is son to worry, to anguish, and it requires great labor to achieve). ==Life beyond Recanati== In 1822 his father allowed him to leave Recanati for a brief stay in Rome, but the poet was unhappy and could not find a suitable job. He was soon back in the ''palazzo'', having lost his faith. The ornate celebrations of the Papacy's temporal power that he had seen in Rome were another disgusting element that prompted his return. Before leaving Rome, however, Leopardi had become well known, and his work was appreciated. With the composition of his ''Operette Morali'', Leopardi put into his works his saddest philosophical thoughts, and his ''historical pessimism'' (rationality as a cause for unhappiness) and his ''cosmic pessimism'' (nature as the source of human troubles because it gives illusions -- ''Ahi Natura, Natura, perché non rendi poi, quel che prometti allor?'') were rendered in their complex entirety. In 1825 he finally left Recanati for Milan, where he started working for an editor, Fortunato Stella. Then he visited Bologna (vainly following the countess Teresa Malvezzi, who fascinated him) and Florence, Italy, where he met Alessandro Manzoni (the other great Italian poet of the century), Viesseux, and Gioberti. In Pisa he wrote ''A Silvia''. In 1830 some friends provided him with a regular stipend, which allowed him to finally forget Recanati and establish himself in Florence. Here he fell in love (this time more seriously) with Fanny Targioni Tozzetti (another married woman), but his love was unrequited. In Florence he met Antonio Ranieri, a Neapolitan gentleman in exile, with whom he later visited Naples which his friend suggested would help him with its warm climate. In Naples he discovered a genuine passion for ice cream, the affection that Ranieri's sister Paolina showed him (in the Ranieris' villa Ferrigni on the slopes of Vesuvius), and the valued confidence of Basilio Puoti (the ''purista''). He died of edema in Naples, Italy a few months later. ==Major works== His major works include the ''Zibaldone'', the ''Operette Morali'' (a collection of short stories), and the ''Canti'' collection of poems. He held a pessimistic view of nature as a bad mother always on the verge of destroying humanity, while happiness came from the absence of pain (as expressed in ''La quiete dopo la tempesta'' where he says "piacer figlio d'affanno" (pleasure son of pain)). {| width="35%" align="right" cellpadding="5" class="noprint" style="float:right; clear:both; border:solid #008 2px; margin:0em 0em 0.5em 0.5em; width:35%;" |- | | width="100%" | '''Wikisource has poems by ''Wikisource:Autore:Giacomo Leopardi'''''. |} ==References== Origo, Iris. ''Leopardi: A Study in Solitude''. Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London, 1953. Leopardi, Giacomo. ''The Canti, with a selection of his prose'' (trans. J.G. Nichols). Carcanet Press, Ltd. Manchester, 1998. ==External link== *[http://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2005/02/infinite.html "The Infinite"] and [http://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2005/02/to-himself_14.html "To Himself"] by Giacomo Leopardi (translations by Gilbert Wesley Purdy). *[http://www.geocities.com/leopardileopardi/p.html Several works in English] 1798 births1837 deathsItalian poets
Giacomo Leopardi
Marj, Deep thanks for your help with my bad text. I realise I used a very confused "italianish" language - ooops! :-) About Leopardi and Coleridge, I don't think they were able to meet, as I have read (on the timeline in your site at Virginia.edu) that Coleridge was not in Italy in the years in which Leopardi was travelling. There are some differences among the sources about Leopardi's travels, indeed, but approximately the periods should however be around 1822 (Rome) and 1825-1837. A google search made me find references to many works that compare them, and at a first sight it seems there is something to investigate. Unfortunately, on my side I am not so fond of Coleridge, but now I have found an interesting site :-) Talking about his passage from erudition to beauty, I intended saying that Leopardi left the style of ''Arcadia'' for the newer one (which effectively was beginning to sound as an archaism at the time). Arcadia was the name of a movement (named after the region, supposed a bucolic symbol) that was born in Rome as a reaction to baroque in literature, with Metastasio as its major writer. At the time Leopardi started writing, it was quite influential to him, but he later realised the false (formal, somehow mannerist) taste of Arcadia and abandoned it for a more linear composing style (also, the passage was from a study-focused activity, to a prevalence of composition). I don't know if Arcadia is known abroad, whether it eventually is called in some other way, and I wonder if it's worth an article on Wikipedia, being a minor movement of italian literature and I haven't found many others here yet. --user:Gianfranco :I checked the indices of some of my Coleridge books, and he doesn't seem to have known of Leopardi. It would be interesting if they had met - they seem to have had a lot in common. Sorry about the archaic/Arcadia mixup - using archaic language in poetry was popular around the turn of the 18th-19th century in the UK, at least. -- user:Marj Tiefert, Tuesday, April 9, 2002 == I dolci di Giacomo == This article would lead one to believe that Leopardi only developed a taste for ice-cream after arriving in Naples. While it's true that he celebrates a particular ice-cream maker in a satirical poem from the Neapolitan period (I nuovi credenti-- "The born-agains"), Iris Origo's biography of the poet puts forward the case that Leopardi had an insatiable sweet-tooth from very early on. His father complains about the boy's habit of using sugar less as a sweetener than as a thickening agent in his coffee. Evidently, it was a lifelong addiction. --[mailto:jakespatz@hotmail.com Spatz]
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