Italian letters and manuscripts by Leopardi, Carducci, Pellico, Manzoni, Duse, Verga and others, mainly C19

ITALIAN LITERATURE

Collection of letters and manuscripts by Leopardi, Carducci, Pellico, Manzoni, Eleonora Duse, Verga, Fogazzaro and others, c.1830-1922

1) LEOPARDI, GIACOMO. Unpublished letter written on Leopardi's behalf by his sister Paolina, signed by her, to the poet Zefirino Re, acknowledging Zefirino Re's gift of a book, assuring him that he considers it full of good criticism and erudition, 1 page, 8vo (22 x 16cm), integral address leaf, Recanati, 16 February 1830; together with six letters signed by their brother Pierfrancesco, reporting the decline and death of his father Monaldo and discussing the publication of a nearly-completed work by him, 12 pages, 8vo, autograph address-panels, Recanati, 9 April 1846 to 27 July 1847

"...Impedito mio Fratello Giacomo dai continui suoi incomodi agli occhi ed alla testa di poter scrivere, incarica me (come egli è già solito di fare), acciò...le dica come egli di già conosceva questo suo lavoro, e lo aveva trovato pieno di bella critica e di bella erudizione ed utile in un medesimo tempo alla lingua ed alla storia nazionale...",

2) CARDUCCI, GIOSUE. Autograph working manuscript of his essay on copyright, specifically his rights as an author to decide whether to publish a particular poem, unsigned [1881], being an account of his dispute with Giacomo Vettori, the editor of the journal Ordine, which had published a hitherto unpublished poem of his without permission, pointing out that Ordine's publication is more egregious than a pirate edition, since it has taken out of the author's hands the decision whether the poem is ready or worthy of publication, 21 pages (of 25, lacking pages 3-6), 8vo (c.21 x 13.5cm), paginated in blue crayon, no place or date, [1881], a few stains, creasing to the last leaf; together with four autograph letters signed ("GiosueCarducci"), 8 pages, 8vo, Bologna, 19 November 1865 and 26 June 1867, where dated

3) Autograph letters and poems by Pellico (about Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa, 28 August 1839, with a carte-de-visite), Manzoni (quoting Socrates and Callicles in Plato's Gorgias), Eleonora Duse (3 letters to Sibilla Aleramo and others, with 8 autograph envelopes, 1877-1922), Verga (apologizing for not writing a piece about Goldoni), Benelli (about the Teatro Manzoni), Triluzzi (autograph manuscript of "Una povera Lucciola"), Boccafurni (his poem 'Ora grigia'), Pascoli (incomplete), Ojetti, Costetto, Bracco, De Amicis, Bolzoni, Paladini, Novaro (about Goldoni), Giovanni Emanuel and Tommaso Salvini, 27 items, many with envelopes, some addressed to the Conte Luigi Grabinski-Broglio, director of the Teatro Manzoni in Milan, 1839-c.1922

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) is considered Italy's greatest nineteenth-century poet. In this letter Leopardi refers to Zeffirino Re's La Vita di Cola di Rienzo tribuno del popolo romano (1828); Re was also a poet, whose Epigrammi (1823) were reprinted in 1830. This letter is not in the editions by F. Flora (1949) or S. Solmi (1966).  Leopardi suffered from ill-health all his adult life and in 1828 had returned to be cared for by his family in Recanati; he was very unhappy there, but composed some of his best-loved poems during his confinement: Le ricordanze and Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell'Asia. Paolina (1800-1869) was herself a fine writer and translator, including a study of Mozart (published in 2010). Their rather stern father Count Mondalo Leopardi, who died in Recanati on 30 April 1847, also published many books.

Carducci's manuscript is an important statement of artistic principle by the leading Italian poet of his generation, an era when literary works were still not protected by copyright. Carducci's essay 'Per l'ordine e contro l'Ordine' was published in the Cronaca bizantina of Rome in two parts, in August 1881 and January 1882. This manuscript does not contain the phrase "ristampato più sopra" on page 21, indicating that it was probably prepared for the first edition, later reprinted in Confessioni e battaglie (1882), 60-68, under "Schermaglie di letteratura, e fors' anche di proprietà d'onestà e di decenza". See also A. Brambilla, 'Nuovi recuperi carducciani' in Aevum, volume 64 (1990), 483-488,

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