Giacomo Leopardi by Agrariamacerata2a

1830

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:46:25 UTC

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.

1831

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:00 UTC

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.

1832

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:06 UTC

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

1833

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:11 UTC

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

1834

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:17 UTC

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

1835

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:23 UTC

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!

1836

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:30 UTC

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'.

1837

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-14 12:47:36 UTC

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.

Agrariamacerata2a — 2020-04-19 14:12:35 UTC

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 14:35:16 UTC

His poems (click for the audiobook)

His house (click for the video)

A man of genious

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 14:41:04 UTC

1798

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 14:44:40 UTC

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.

1799

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 14:54:41 UTC

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

1804

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 14:57:18 UTC

Napoleon self-crowned emperor.

1805

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 15:00:02 UTC

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.

1808

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 15:01:51 UTC

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

1809

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 16:23:56 UTC

Giacomo started his seven years of mad & desperate study.

1809

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 16:26:23 UTC

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

1810

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 16:32:41 UTC

The 'Iliad' was written by Vincenzo Monti.

serenellasilenzi — 2020-04-21 16:39:30 UTC

1810

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:50:47 UTC

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

1812

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:52:51 UTC

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.

1809-1816

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:53:43 UTC

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.

1813-1815

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:53:52 UTC

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

1816

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:54:43 UTC

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

1817

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:54:48 UTC

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

1819

alecant — 2020-04-22 08:54:52 UTC

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)

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

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:03 UTC

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).

1822: "Odyssey" by Ippolito Pindemonte.

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:07 UTC

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

1823: 'On Romanticism'

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:12 UTC

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.'

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

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:16 UTC

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).

1829: "Il sabato del villaggio" a poem

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:23 UTC

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)

1827: 'Operette morali' (1st edition)

alecant — 2020-04-22 09:15:28 UTC

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