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About this Item

Title

  • Idylls.

Other Title

  • Idilli

Summary

  • Known as the "exercise book of the Idylls," this autograph manuscript of the great Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (1798--1837) is preserved at the National Library of Naples. It consists of a booklet with lined pages, on which the author's handwriting stands out sharp and clear. The booklet constitutes the basic draft of Leopardi's Idilli (Idylls), composed between 1819 and 1821. Included are La ricordanza (The remembrance) which later was titled Alla luna (To the moon), L'Infinito (The infinite), Lo spavento notturno (Nocturnal fright), Sera del giorno festivo (The evening of the feast day), Il sogno (The dream), and La vita solitaria (Solitary life). Leopardi himself called these poems "idylls" and intended by them to express the "situations, affections, historical adventures" of his soul. The reader learns about solitude, considered as the need for regeneration and a refuge from the delusions that human beings must endure (La vita solitaria). He takes part in a dialogue with the moon, a silent and continuous presence with which the poet interacts, identifying it with the symbol of femininity and the gaze of a distant otherness (Alla luna). The pain of unrequited love for a woman, unaware that she is the cause of the poet's feelings, is expressed; this is followed by a meditation on time and history that leads the distressed poet, in his isolation and loneliness, on the border between life and death, reality and nothingness, to contemplate the glories of past ages and experience nostalgia for his childhood (Sera del giorno festivo). The most defining poem of the Idilli is L'Infinito, written in 1819, a year in which the poet experienced a deep state of melancholia, leading him almost to the point of suicide but which at the same time sparked in him a need to write as a means of salvation. As the culmination of Leopardi's poetry, L'Infinito has captured the attention of scholars and critics as well as poets from around the world.

Names

  • Leopardi, Giacomo, 1798-1837 Author.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1819 to 1821]

Headings

  • -  Italy
  • -  1819 to 1821
  • -  Italian poetry
  • -  Poetry

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 20 pages ; 180 x 117 millimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: National Library of Naples.
  • -  Content in Italian.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021667874

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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The Library asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here.

Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

More about Copyright and other Restrictions

For additional information and contact information for many of the partner organizations, see this archived capture of the World Digital Library site from 2021.

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Leopardi, Giacomo, Author. Idylls. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1821, 1819] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667874/.

APA citation style:

Leopardi, G. (1819) Idylls. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1821] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667874/.

MLA citation style:

Leopardi, Giacomo, Author. Idylls. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1821, 1819] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667874/>.