Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Z 226

  1. Leopardi describes here what Schiller calls “reflection”: “we never receive the object, only what the reflecting intelligence of the poet has made of the object … we do not experience his state directly and at first hand but as it is reflected in his spirit, what he as observer of himself has thought about it” (On the Naive and Sentimental in Literature, trans. H. Watanabe-O’Kelly, Manchester: Carcanet, 1981, p. 51). This makes uniformity, the purportedly typical defect of modern societies (cf. Z 147–49 and note), characteristic of Romantic poetry; but see Z 257–59 and note. On the distinction between “naïve” and “sentimental” poetry see Z 1448 and note 2, 1862 and note 1.

  Z 229

  1. This broadly positive appraisal of the Napoleonic system may owe a debt to the anonymous Manuscrit venu de Sainte-Hélène, cited on Z 135, or (as Timpanaro, “Il Leopardi e la rivoluzione francese” [B12], pp. 139–40, suggests) to Pietro Giordani’s “Panegirico a Napoleone.” Among Leopardi’s late literary projects (perhaps 1828?) we find a poem on Napoleon (Prose, p. 1218). Alessandro Manzoni, whom Leopardi met in Florence in 1827, had already taken the death of Napoleon in 1821 as the starting point for his poem Il cinque maggio, written in the same year.

  Z 230

  1. Giovanni Della Casa, Galateo, ch. 3, in Opere, vol. 2, tome 3, p. 241.

  Z 231

  1. Lady Morgan, La France, loc. cit., emphasis added by Leopardi (English ed. France, London 1818, vol. 1, pp. 287–88, which reproduces the dialogues in French).

  Z 232

  1. This work by Montesquieu, first published in 1725, has already been mentioned twice in the text (first on Z 142).

  Z 233

  1. Translation from Lady Morgan, France, London 1818, vol. 1, p. 326.

  2. Algarotti, in Saggio sopra la necessità di scrivere nella propria lingua, in Opere, tome 4, pp. 7–8, remarks on the need for modern writers to learn a range of different languages, in addition to Greek and Latin.

  Z 236

  1. Translation from Lady Morgan, France, London 1818, vol. 1, p. 330.

  Z 237

  1. This passage from Jean-François de La Harpe’s eulogy of La Fontaine was taken from Leçons, tome 1, p. 571 (Pacella).

  Z 238

  1. Leopardi was later drastically to revise this judgment, having read more of Byron’s poetry. See his letter of 5 June 1826 to Francesco Puccinotti: “He [Byron] really is one of the few poets worthy of the age, and of sensitive warm souls like you” (trans. Prue Shaw).

  Z 240

  1. Cicero, Pro Archia poeta 4, 23, a marginal addition, perhaps from February 1821 (Pacella). The English translation is based on Leopardi’s own Italian translation, which is longer than the partial Latin quotation that he writes down.

  Z 241

  1. The references to the English language and to the survival of Latin in Europe and in North Africa are interlinear and marginal additions dating from February 1821 (Pacella).

  Z 242

  1. Catherine, married to Henry II, and Maria, the second wife of Henry IV. See Z 752 and note.

  Z 244

  1. That is, the authors of Hellenistic and Byzantine Greece, whom Leopardi studied very carefully (see his Scritti filologici).

  Z 245

  1. Jean-Baptiste Say, the economist and idéologue, in Petit volume contenant quelques aperçus des hommes et de la société (2nd ed., Paris 1818). This sentence is on p. 52 of the 1818 ed. (“The finest ode touches one little, teaches nothing, and pleases hardly at all. It is the sonata of literature”). Leopardi may be quoting from the Italian trans. Gli uomini e la società, Milan 1818, p. 58, or from “Filosofia e pittura dei costumi. moralisti francesi,” an anonymous article in the Spettatore straniero, tome 9, no. 10 (90), 1817, pp. 553–59 (the quotation on p. 558). See Z 3447 and note. On the preeminence of the lyric genre see Z 4234–35 and 4356–57.

  Z 246

  1. Lady Morgan, La France, bk. 5, vol. 2, p. 17, who gives as examples of modern and ancient “sublime” Milton and the Parthenon.

  2. Antony van Leeuwenhoek, celebrated for his microscopes, is mentioned by Leopardi in one of his Operette morali, “Dialogo di un Fisico e di un Metafisico.”

  Z 247

  1. Petrarch, Rime 50, ll. 2–3. Leopardi had also reflected upon fantasies relating to the Antipodes in his Saggio sopra gli errori popolari (1815).

  Z 249

  1. The Hegesiacs were followers of Hegesias of Cyrene, a Greek philosopher and follower of Aristippus.

  Z 250

  1. Horace, Ars poetica 398.

  Z 251

  1. Lady Morgan, La France, bk. 5, vol. 2, p. 6, note. She does not explicitly mention Bonaparte, but simply refers to the “police.”

  2. In July 1819, Pius VII had ordered the town of Sonnino, a nest of brigands, to be razed to the ground. The edict was revoked the following year.

  Z 252

  1. Cicero, De natura deorum 3, 91.

  2. See Z 21–23. This passage (and its appendix on Z 314–15) might imply the knowledge of Rousseau’s first Discourse (but see Z 56 and note 3), in particular the first part, where “le stupide Musulman” is mentioned (Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 5). Henri de Boulanvilliers’s Life of Mohammed was published in 1731. On the concept of “middling civilization” implied here (“a perfect balance of civilization and nature”), see Z 162 and note 3.

  Z 254

  1. Pachomius and Macarius were Desert Fathers from the fourth century.

  2. The tendency of early Roman religion to link religious sentiment with love of country, and of Christianity to disrupt that connection, had been variously explored by Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, most obviously in Du contrat social, bk. 4, ch. 8. Leopardi, however, probably first encountered the argument in Lamennais, Saggio, ch. 10, tome 1, part. 3, p. 162, where this same passage in Rousseau is cited (note that the Italian translation of Du contrat social in the LL is uncut, except for three sections, one of which corresponds to bk 4, ch. 8, pp. 193–201, where Rousseau also quotes Hobbes). Cf. also Z 1426–27.

  3. A maxim from I Corinthians 9:27, also quoted on Z 152.

  Z 256

  1. For this and the following thought see Z 3 and note 1.

  2. See another cosmic poetic image on Z 280.

  Z 259

  1. One may well be reminded of Wordsworth’s “emotion recollected in tranquillity.” And see also how Schiller describes elegiac poetry: “The poet … must have already cooled down considerably in order to be the onlooker at his own emotion” (On the Naive and Sentimental in Literature, cited on Z 226, note, p. 51). From this thought, which in some ways contradicts the criticism of the reflectiveness of Romantic poetry (see Z 225–26), there derive important consequences for Leopardi’s poetics of memory: cf. Z 714–15.

  Z 260

  1. For this phenomenology of the poetic effect see Z 3161, 4493, and 4515. Cf. also what Leopardi says of “melancholic and sentimental poetry” as “a breath of the soul” (Z 136).

  Z 261

  1. Leopardi mentions here Petrarch’s poem in tercets I trionfi; Homer’s Iliad, bk. 24; Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther; two poems by Byron, the second of which was mentioned on Z 223 and 226.

  Z 262

  1. Montesquieu, Considérations, ch. 2, p. 16, contrasts the intermittent efforts of modern soldiers with the uninterrupted and tireless toil of the Romans.

  2. The concluding line of this paragraph, with the reference to Z 531–32 and 535 (but see also Z 2803–804) was added by Leopardi to the bottom margin of the page. In the chapter of the Saggio sopra gli errori popolari (1815) devoted to “nocturnal terrors” Leopardi notes that even Voltaire was afraid of ghosts (Prose, p. 714). Unlike the ancients’ timor, which is the source of superstition, “terror” is an inexplicable form of fear that belongs to the post-Enlightenment, adult and “civilized” subject, the more troubling insofar as it emerges within the paradigmatic frame of rationalism. According to Fabio Camilletti (“Il passo di Nerina. Memoria, storia e formul
e di pathos ne ‘Le ricordanze,’” Italianistica, XXXIX, 2, 2010, pp. 50–51), Leopardi’s “terror” is the haunting return of a culturally repressed supernatural belief, and can therefore be assimilated to the Freudian “uncanny.”

  Z 265

  1. Diogenes Laertius 3, 8–9.

  Z 269

  1. Montesquieu, Essai sur le goût, “Du je ne sais quoi,” pp. 394–95.

  Z 270

  2. Frederick II of Prussia, Oeuvres, tome 13, p. 87 (letter 33 to D’Alembert), actually writes: “If he could live without his blood circulating, he would prefer to do so.” This reference, a marginal addition, probably dates to the period between September 1823 and June 1825, when Leopardi was reading the works of Frederick II.

  Z 274

  1. Montesquieu, Considérations, ch. 10, p. 105, regarding the Epicureans and the moral damage they inflicted upon the late Roman Republic.

  2. Leopardi mentions here Roman Stoics and republicans, of the first century CE. On the whole passage, see Z 520–22 and note 1.

  Z 275

  1. The word sombre is given in the text in French.

  Z 276

  1. According to Z 51, however, someone who sins without remorse is “innocent,” which means that for Leopardi “innocent” and “wicked” are synonyms (see his Index, under “Innocent”).

  Z 277

  1. A possible echo of Pascal, Pensées (ed. Brunschvicg), § 172, cited on Z 648–49 (Damiani).

  Z 279

  1. Again an echo of Pascal, Pensées (ed. Brunschvicg), § 206: “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me.”

  Z 280

  1. One of the tantalizing images scattered throughout the Zibaldone (see, e.g., Z 3, 256), which may be connected to thoughts about infinity or numbering (see Z 360–62, 2186 and note 2), or the distraction of philosophers (see Z 490–91). A traditional song of Leopardi’s region, the Marche, goes: “Oh conta quante stelle, quante stelle, / Vedi se te dà l’animo a contalle! / Bella, le pene mia, so’ tutte quelle” [“Oh, count how many stars, how many stars, / See if you can bear to count them! / Lovely girl, my sorrows are as many as they”] (A. Gianandrea, Canti popolari marchigiani, Turin 1875, p. 93).

  2. Cf. Z 112.

  Z 281

  1. Virgil, Georgics 4, 511–15.

  2. Buffon, Histoire naturelle, tome 2, “De la vieillesse et de la mort,” p. 581 (LL = Storia naturale dell’uomo, tome 2, p. 283). Buffon is mentioned here for the first time. Leopardi owned the complete works in an Italian translation (although he always cites the title in French). However, he had read many passages in French in Leçons: for example in this case tome 1, p. 333.

  Z 283

  1. Buffon, Histoire naturelle, tome 2, “De la vieillesse et de la mort,” pp. 581–82 (LL = Storia naturale dell’uomo, tome 2, pp. 283–84). The same passage, in French, is in Leçons, tome 1, p. 334. See also Z 2566–67, and one of the Operette morali, “Dialogo di Federico Ruysch e delle sue mummie,” in which death is defined almost as a pleasure. The operetta also contains a lyrical account of the “point of death,” discussed in this passage.

  Z 285

  1. The problem was addressed by Leopardi in the canzone “Nelle nozze della sorella Paolina,” written when his sister Paolina was preparing for her wedding (which did not take place). Thales’s answer is in Diogenes Laertius 1, 26.

  Z 287

  1. In the late summer and early fall of 1819, when he was reading Chateaubriand’s Génie du Christianisme, Leopardi sketched out a discourse to be attached to his “Inni Cristiani,” in which he remarked upon the fact that the Christian religion, since it offered much that resembled illusion, was very favorable to poetry.

  Z 288

  1. Animal cooperation was investigated by, among others, Buffon, Leopardi’s probable source here; see, e.g., Histoire naturelle, tome 22, p. 294 (“grues en société,” where Buffon quotes Aristotle). See Z 3778 (and note), where Leopardi contrasts animal cooperation with human unsociability.

  Z 291

  1. See Domenico Cirillo, Sensazioni de’ moribondi, in Discorsi accademici, n.p. 1789, pp. 117–64, where he states that death is the source of a great feeling of pleasure, pp. 118, 121, and passim. This work is not found in the LL. Cirillo, a botanist and physician, was one of the martyrs of the Parthenopean Republic of 1799.

  2. Buffon, Histoire naturelle, tome 2, “De la vieillesse et de la mort,” p. 579 (LL = Storia naturale dell’uomo, tome 2, p. 281).

  3. A passing allusion to Cicero, De senectute 7, a passage later quoted on Z 599. The last two sentences are added in the margin.

  Z 293

  1. This is a major theme in a book that was very influential in Leopardi’s education, Genovesi’s Logica per i giovanetti, bk. 5, ch. 4, see in particular §§ 37–38, p. 230, § 60, p. 241.

  Z 295

  1. See the anonymous article “Sull’amore che portano i vecchi alla vita,” Spettatore straniero, tome 9, issue 6 (82), 1817, pp. 329–35. But here, as well as in many subsequent entries, Leopardi’s typology of behavior observable in old age and in youth is modeled upon the schemas drawn from Aristotle’s Rhetoric, rendered into Italian by Caro and later (1827) anthologized by Leopardi in his prose Crestomazia (pp. 447–48 for Rhetoric 1389a–b; pp. 448–50 for 1389b–1390a).

  2. A reference to the autobiographical sketches known as “Vita abbozzata di Silvio Sarno” (see Scritti e frammenti autobiografici, pp. 45–122) written in 1819.

  Z 301

  1. See Montesquieu, Considérations, ch. 6, p. 68, a passage already cited on Z 114. The same idea is also expounded in Machiavelli’s Discorsi, a work that, however, Leopardi never mentions.

  2. The assassination of the Duc de Berry in February 1820 had exacerbated the political tension between “the two Frances,” and led to the temporary ascendancy of the royalist camp, under the ministry of Villèle.

  Z 302

  1. Madame de Lambert held a salon in the early decades of the eighteenth century, frequented by Fontenelle, Montesquieu, and Marivaux, among others. Leopardi makes extensive use of her ethical treatises, although the two French editions he used are no longer in the library at Recanati.

  Z 304

  1. Perhaps an allusion to a passage in Eusebius, Life of Constantine 4, 25, in which it is claimed that the emperor had banned sacrifices, the consultation of oracles, the worship of images, and the staging of gladiatorial combats (Pacella).

  2. The final line of a celebrated quatrain by Pierre Charles Roy, originally printed beneath an engraving of a skating scene by Nicholas de Larmessin, cited in Spettatore straniero, tome 11, no. 13 (96), 1818, p. 117 (Pacella). Compare this thought with Z 1252, 2711, 4160–61.

  Z 305

  1. If “modern civilization” should return man to “the level of ancient civilization” (Z 162, 402), philosophy should return man to nature, ignorance, childhood, or a philosophy that “participates to some degree in nature,” such as that of Socrates (Z 1359–60). That the aim of philosophy is to destroy the errors that it has caused, or to recover the wisdom of the ancients, is reiterated many times by Leopardi at different stages, with reference to different areas of human experience and with different nuances: see Z 449–50, 490–94, 575, 1252, 2709–11 (and notes), 4190, 4192–93, 4477–78, 4500–501, 4507–508. See also Z 416 and note. What Leopardi says here recalls Wittgenstein’s attitude to the ultimate aim of philosophy, as for example in Tractatus logico-philosophicus, 6.54: “My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he climbed up it),” trans. D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963.

  Z 306

  1. A definition given by Rousseau in his Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, part 1 (in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 138): “If she [nature] destined us to be healthy, I venture almost to assert that the state of reflection is a state
against Nature, and that the man who thinks is a depraved animal” (in the Venice 1797 translation, p. 19: “l’uomo che medita è un animal depravato”). See Z 56, note 3.

  Z 308

  1. In ancient metrical terminology, syllables that change their quantity from short to long or vice versa.

  2. Homer, Iliad 5, ll. 31 and 455. In this line the initial syllable of Ares is first long and then short, thus illustrating Leopardi’s point.

  Z 309

  1. Leopardi refers here to the definition by Aristotle of man as “the only animal that has the gift of speech,” or “reason,” depending on which meaning is given to the word “logos” (Politics, 1253a 9–10, and 1332b 5). “Zoon logikon” is also a Stoic definition of man (Chrysippus).

  Z 311

  1. The primacy of politics over ethics is interpreted by Leopardi as the primacy of facts over theories. Later on he will juxtapose practical and theoretical morality (Z 2492–93). See D’Intino, L’immagine della voce, ch. 2 (B11).

  Z 314

  1. It is difficult to say whether there is an echo here of Vico’s distinction between an original and a “returned” barbarism; see The New Science, in particular bk. 5 (§§ 1046ff.). See Z 403, 423, 740, 868, 926, 2509, 3517–18, 4136, 4185. More in general, on the influence of Vico on Leopardi, see note 2 to Z 143. This thought is an extension of Z 252 (see note).

  2. See Z 135 and note 2, Z 229 and note.

  Z 315

  1. See Z 986 and note 1.

  2. See Z 162 and note 3.

  Z 316

  1. The Suda is an encyclopedic lexicon compiled in Byzantium in Greek (tenth century CE), sometimes mistakenly attributed to a certain Suidas, as if the name of a person. See Z 2697 and note 1.

  2. On the last words of Theophrastus, compared with those of Brutus, Leopardi wrote in 1822 a short piece of prose, the “Comparazione delle sentenze di Bruto minore e di Teofrasto vicini a morte” (Volgarizzamenti, pp. 333–46).

  Z 317

  1. A reference to the Stoics, as described in Diogenes Laertius 7, 127. See Z 2800–803 and note.

  2. Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 5, 25, and more in general bk. 3. On the role of fortune see Z 3072–73 and note.