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His poems (click for the audiobook)

His house (click for the video)

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Giacomo Leopardi was born in Recanati, in the Pontifical State (now in the Marches), on June 29th 1798 to a noble family. His father, Count Monaldo, was an Italian philosopher, nobleman, politician and writer, notable as one of the main Italian intellectuals of the counter-revolution and his mother, Marquise Adelaide Antici, was a very religious woman, tied to social conventions and rather cold and austere.
Romanticism was also born in Germany in 1798 (Friedrich Schlegel uses the term "Romantik" to define the restless dramatic poetry of moderns; 'Athenäum' magazine) and in England Wordsworth and Coleridge published the 'Lyrical Ballads'.
In that period Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Recanati's army on the Marina Gate and conquered the city.

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Coup d'etat of 18th brumaire: end of the French Revolution, Bonaparte's Consulate started.

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Napoleon self-crowned emperor.

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The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed In Milan, Napoleon became king of Italy with the victory against the 3rd Coalition of Francis 1st of Austria and the Treaty of Presburg.

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Tuscany and the Marches were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

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Giacomo started his seven years of mad & desperate study.

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In 1809 Leopardi composed his first poetic composition intitled 'La morte di Ettore'.

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La fonte leopardiana del sonetto, secondo Maria Corti, più che la celeberrima traduzione dell' Iliade del Cesarotti (si ricordi che ancora Giacomo non aveva studiato la lingua greca), fu quella men celebre, ma allora in voga di Giacinto Ceruti (a quanto sembra digitalizzata in più versioni da Google, ma stranamente non usufruibile). Venne per la prima volta pubblicato in G. L., Puerili e abbozzi vari, a cura di A. Donati, Bari 1924, poi ripreso dai seguenti editori (Flora, Binni-Ghidetti, Rigoni) tutti con indebiti aggiustamenti della grafia. Io ne presento il testo seguendo la solita Maria Corti, ma aggiungendo, al solito, punto fermo a titolo e genere, omessi per criteri editoriali dalla studiosa. Una riproduzione dell'autografo si ritrova nell' Album Leopardi collaterale all'edizione Damiani-Rigoni (cfr. in rete Viaggi nel Testo ecc.; 02-10/2010), che conferma appieno le mie scelte. Da notare gli in-fuori invece che gli in-dentro, e l'assoluta mancanza di interlineee. Viceversa, la numerazione aggiunta ai versi non è leopardiana.

La composizione, che risale al 1809, per testimonianza stessa del poeta, sarebbe la sua prima prova di poesia: "La morte di Ettore. Sonetto, il quale fu la prima mia Poetica composizione. 1809" (cfr. Indici, Binni-Ghidetti, p. 996). Ciò è d'altronde confermato dal fatto che ne esiste una versione isolata, diversamente da questa non compresa in alcun quadernetto, con alcune varianti; il che attesta l'attenzione dell'aspirante poeta al dato formale. Per la grafia si notino l'uso delle maiuscole ( Numi, Eroe), quel "innorridito" con la doppia "n", nonché l'uso della "j", che verrà abbandonato nel 1817-18. Per maggiori informazioni rimando a Maria Corti.

A latere - Frontespizio del primo tomo, contenente i primi otto canti dell' Iliade, della traduzione del Ceruti, per i tipi del Zatta, in Venezia. Nella prefazione vien spiegato il perché della scelta del traduttore da parte dell'editore, rispetto alla più famosa versione del Cesarotti. Il "sig. Ab. Giacinto Ceruti" venne preferito in quanto "più popolare, benché meno accurato del primo", riconoscendo bensì il merito al "Sig. Cesarotti" il quale è "da leggersi come interprete", ma "dando il Ceruti da leggersi come traduttore d'Omero"; giudizio in certa misura condivisibile. La scansione è effettuata su testo di proprietà.

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Giacomo Leopardi, Puerili: La Morte di Ettore

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La fonte leopardiana del sonetto, secondo Maria Corti, più che la celeberrima traduzione dell' Iliade del Cesarotti (si ricordi che ancora Giacomo non aveva studiato la lingua greca), fu quella men celebre, ma allora in voga di Giacinto Ceruti (a quanto sembra digitalizzata in più versioni da Google, ma stranamente non usufruibile).

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The 'Iliad' was written by Vincenzo Monti.

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Giacomo Leopardi - IL SABATO DEL VILLAGGIO - Le videopoesie di Gianni Caputo

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Leopardi immersed himself into a 'mad and desperate' study, which absorbed all his energies and caused a serious damage to his health. He perfectly learned Latin and, without the help of any teachers, Greek, too. He also learnt other languages such as: Hebrew, French, English, Spanish and German. In that period Giacomo was affected by serious physical problems of a rheumatic type and psychological problems which he mainly attributed to his excessive study, isolation and immobility in uncomfortable positions of the long days spent in the library of Count Monaldo.

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In 1810 he began the study of philosophy and two years later he wrote his philosophical dissertations on logic, philosophy, morals, theoretical and experimental physics

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In 1812 the education of the Abbot Sanchini ceased, in fact it was considered useless to continue because Giacomo then knew more than the Abbot himself did.

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Giacomo composes cultured works: History of Astronomy in 1813; An Essay over the popular errors of the ancients, in 1815

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1816 is a turning point. Leopardi had a literary conversion and moves from youth learning to beauty, poetry and a greater sensitivity, to artistic values and philosophical speculation. Giacomo became a good friend of Pietro Giordani

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In 1817 he began to collect literary, philosophical, personal notes in his Zibaldone.

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In 1819 his poetic production increased and developed in fact he wrote his idylls, in particular he composed some of his most famous poems: L'infinito, La sera del dì di festa, Alla luna.
(Click to watch the video in Italian) - (Click to watch the video in English)

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1820: First processing of the so-called Theory of Pleasure'

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1820: First processing of the so-called Theory of Pleasure'

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In his Theory of Pleasure, Leopardi argues that man's imaginative faculty, which permits him to satisfy his desire for the infinite, is weakened by the rational thinking of modern philosophy and science. This antagonism between imagination and reason is also essential to Leopardi's poetics of the indefinite. Considering the effect of ancient, 'imaginative' poetry on the reader, he develops a theory of language which opposes the 'vague', 'indefinite' poetic language to the precise, 'definite' language of philosophy and science. According to this theory, the 'indefiniteness' of the poetic language pleases the reader because it allows 'infinite' possibilities of interpretation and, thus, corresponds to man's desire for the infinite. How far these reflections can be transferred into poetic practice, will be discussed in relation to L'infinito, an example of a poem whose 'indefinite' language evokes 'infinite' interpretations.

Certified by the 'Zibaldone' (1817-1832).

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For his restlessness and his melancholy he was considered the precursor of the Romantics.

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Manzoni defends the Italian Romanticism (Lombard Romanticism, in particular): 'The useful as a purpose, the true as a subject and the interesting as a medium.'

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1824: "Operette morali" (composition of the first twenty)

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1824: "Operette morali" (composition of the first twenty)

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There is the research of the "true immature" and here the role of Nature changes: no longer a loving mother, but an indifferent stepmother; man has no hope of freeing himself from evil(click on this link to watch a theatrical performance in Italian).

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The girl comes from the fields,
at sunset,
carrying her sheaf of grass: in her fingers
a bunch of violets and roses:
she’s ready, as before,
to wreathe her hair and bodice,
for tomorrow’s holiday. The old woman sits spinning,
facing the dying sunlight, on the stairway, with her neighbours,
telling the tale of her own young days,
when she dressed for the festival,
and still slim and lovely,
danced all evening, with those young
boys, companions of her fairer season.
Already the whole sky darkens,
the air turns deep blue: already
shadows of hills and roofs return,
on the young moon’s pale rising.
Now the bells are witness
to the coming holiday:
you would say the heart
might take comfort from the sound.
A gang of little boys
shout in the tiny square,
leaping here and there,
making a happy din:
and the farmhand, whistling,
returns for his simple meal,
dreams of his day of rest.
(Click for the Italian reading)

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'Il Copernico' & 'Dialogo di Plotino e di Porfirio' were later added to the first 20 compositions (Click to download the text.

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In the competition launched by the 'Accademia della Crusca', the 'Operette Morali' he received only one vote, losing.
After finishing 'I Canti notturni' he asked Pietro Colletta for a loan which would allow him to live for a year.
He, then, returned to Florence where he met Antonio Ranieri, who would stay with him until the end.

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Villa Koch - Il Giovane Favoloso - Clip 2

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The uprisings of central Italy were underway and the name of Leopardi as a frequent visitor to liberal circles was reported to the Grand Ducal police.
The Public Council of Recanati appointed him as the representative to the National Assembly of Bologna but the austrian troops arrived.
In April, 'I Canti' for the publisher Piatti came out, with the money obtained Leopardi returned the sum of the previous year to Pietro Colletta, but the relationship between the two became very cold, and the loan was not renewed. In September he went to Rome with Ranieri.

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Canti Giacomo LEOPARDI Audio Libro Italiano AUDIO BOOK ITALIAN

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He wrote the last two dialogues of the operette morali, 'Il Dialogo di un venditore d'almanacchi a un passeggere' and the 'Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico'.
Dialogo di un venditore di almanacchi, video

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Ermanno Olmi: Dialogo di un venditore di almanacchi e di un passeggiere | Edison

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In September 1839 Leopardi moved to Naples
He wrote Pensieri from 1831 to 1835.
Parole vuote Video

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The second edition of the Operette Morali was released.
Video Operette morali (1st part)
Video Operette morali (2nd part)
Video Operette morali (3rd part)

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The publication in six volumes of his writings agreed with the publisher Starita of Naples. The 'Canti' were published, too, with some of his most famous compositions: 'The lonely sparrow', 'Imitation' and 'The Aspasia cycle'.
'The lonely sparrow' (click for the audio in Italian)
Thou from the top of yonder antique tower,
O lonely sparrow, wandering, hast gone,
Thy song repeating till the day is done,
And through this valley strays the harmony.
How Spring rejoices in the fields around,
And fills the air with light,
So that the heart is melted at the sight!
Hark to the bleating flocks, the lowing herds!
In sweet content, the other birds
Through the free sky in emulous circles wheel,
In pure enjoyment of their happy time:
Thou, pensive, gazest on the scene apart,
Nor wilt thou join them in the merry round;
Shy playmate, thou for mirth hast little heart;
And with thy plaintive music, dost consume
Both of the year, and of thy life, the bloom.

Alas, how much my ways
Resemble thine! The laughter and the sport,
That fill with glee our youthful days,
And thee, O love, who art youth's brother still,
Too oft the bitter sigh of later years,
I care not for; I know not why,
But from them ever distant fly:
Here in my native place,
As if of alien race,
My spring of life I like a hermit pass.
This day, that to the evening now gives way,
Is in our town an ancient holiday.
Hark, through the air, that voice of festal bell,
While rustic guns in frequent thunders sound,
Reverberated from the hills around.
In festal robes arrayed,
The neighboring youth,
Their houses leaving, o'er the roads are spread;
They pleasant looks exchange, and in their hearts
Rejoice. I, lonely, in this distant spot,
Along the country wandering,
Postpone all pleasure and delight
To some more genial time: meanwhile,
As through the sunny air around I gaze,
My brow is smitten by his rays,
As after such a day serene,
Dropping behind yon distant hills,
He vanishes, and seems to say,
That thus all happy youth must pass away.

Thou, lonely little bird, when thou
Hast reached the evening of the days
Thy stars assign to thee,
Wilt surely not regret thy ways;
For all thy wishes are
Obedient to Nature's law. But ah!
If I, in spite of all my prayers,
Am doomed the hateful threshold of old age
To cross, when these dull eyes will give
No response to another's heart,
The world to them a void will be,
Each day become more full of misery,
How then, will this, my wish appear
In those dark hours, that dungeon drear?
My blighted youth, my sore distress,
Alas, will _then_ seem happiness!

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Starita prints the 3rd edition of the Operette morali; the Bourbon censorship ordered the seizure of these and the 'Canti'. Then he wrote 'La ginestra' (click for the video), 'Tramonto della luna' and 'The new believers'.

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He died in Naples. He was buried in the church of San Vitale in Fuorigrotta. In 1937 Leopardi was moved to the Virgiliano park of Fuorigrotta in Naples.

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Giacomo Leopardi - "Alla luna" (Lettura di Arnoldo Foà)