Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Z 2344

  1. See Virgil, Eclogues 9, 31: “sic cytiso pastae distendant ubera vaccae” [“so may your cattle, fed on clover, swell their udders”] (which is how it reads in modern editions).

  Z 2354

  1. According to Daniele Maggi (see Z 929, note 1; Z 1139, note 4), the argument of Leopardi, who was not aware of the theoretical foundations of Indo-European linguistics, as formulated by Franz Bopp, goes beyond his most probable source, Alexander Hamilton’s review of Wilkins (see Z 929 and note, 1136), insofar as he suggests that, given the greater similarities between Sanskrit and Latin (compared with Greek), the greater geographical distance demonstrates that they do not depend on horizontal transmission; a view shared by Gaston Laurent Coeurdoux in a memoir written in 1768 and printed in 1808 in the Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, vol. 49 (this journal, not held by the LL, is cited, however, at Z 1012; and see Z 1139, note 4).

  2. Xenophon, Memorabilia 2, 2, is cited in the margin from Leopardi’s Leipzig edition, 1801–1804, and is a marginal addition.

  Z 2360

  1. Leopardi takes the general Latin term figura from Forcellini to describe various ways in which vowels acquire a consonantal value. The terms synizesis and synecphonesis are synonymous.

  Z 2365

  1. See instead Virgil, Aeneid 2, 544. The first example cited by Forcellini is Cicero, Pro Caelio 78, while Caligula’s remark about Seneca is in Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars 4, 53, 2.

  2. The following sentence is a marginal addition. In the ms. the second E faces left.

  Z 2366

  1. As on Z 2354, Leopardi notes here an almost Christian expression in Virgil.

  Z 2368

  1. The “tristia facta” [deplorable deeds] as Pyrrhus describes what he is about to do in killing Priam.

  Z 2369

  1. Virgil, Aeneid 2, 783–84: “Illic res laetae regnumque et regia coniunx / Parta tibi.” Leopardi had himself translated these lines (1816, published 1817) as follows: “Lieta ventura a te s’appresta e regno / E consorte regal.”

  Z 2374

  1. Alamanni, La coltivazione, p. 143.

  Z 2376

  1. That is, Virgil’s Opera, Mannheim 1779.

  2. Keller, Orthographia Latina, pp. 7 and 69; Manutius, Epitome orthographiae, p. 3.

  Z 2379

  1. See Frances A. Yates, The Art of Memory, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. Cf. Z 1765 and note.

  Z 2380

  1. In moral theology acts are termed human when they are proper to man as man; when, on the contrary, they are elicited by man, but not proper to him as a rational agent (i.e., instinctive, physiological), they are called acts of man. See also Z 181, 437. Leopardi may also have in mind the Greek distinction between bios (life) and zoe (bare life)—what Leopardi calls “existence” on Z 3924.

  Z 2381

  1. When his cousin Giulia took the veil Leopardi was a child (1803), as he recounts in “Vita abbozzata di Silvio Sarno,” § 67; the same had happened to his father Monaldo with his sister; but also literary memories are probably at play, for example Alfieri’s grief when his sister Giulia entered the convent (Vita, part 2, ch. 5) and Chateaubriand’s Amélie in René (which Leopardi could read in his edition of Génie du Christianisme, see Z 53, note 1). See also the sketch of a story about a suicide nun written in 1819 (Prose, p. 1204), and Z 29.

  Z 2383

  1. This passage may begin with a reference to the confinement of young girls in a convent but most of it is in the masculine and seems in fact to be autobiographical, and reminiscent of another fragment of autobiography on Z 353–56.

  Z 2386

  1. That is, the Aethiopica (or Theagenes and Charicleia) 1, 26, 6, a novel written in Greek in the third or fourth century CE, by Heliodorus of Emesa (in Syria), and translated into Italian by Gasparo Gozzi.

  Z 2388

  1. In the New Science Vico likewise traced the origins of all the religions of the Gentile nations to the terror caused by thunder and lightning; see, for example, §§ 9, 62, 178, 377. See also Z 2208 and note, 3638–43, and the autobiographical note on Z 3518–19.

  Z 2390

  1. On children’s imagination see Z 499–501, 3950–51.

  2. For this work, cf. Z 2016 and note.

  Z 2391

  1. That is, l. 1139. This line confirms the idea, already expounded on Z 714–16, 1176–79, 1653–54, 1776–77, and 2274–75, that excess “is the father of nothing.”

  Z 2395

  1. Cf. Z 222–23, 830ff., 1570–72, 1618–19.

  2. Leopardi gives the Latin translation by Johannes Löwenklau, featured in the Leipzig edition by Wells held in the LL.

  3. Carlo Botta, the author of histories of Italy and of the American War of Independence, was noted for his austerely purist style. Vieusseux would later, in 1830, propose that the Crusca prize be divided between Botta and Leopardi, but to no avail: it was awarded only to Botta. On the “purists” see Z 1, note 6, and 1899.

  Z 2396

  1. There follows an unattached ms. marginal addition.

  2. An imaginary figure, whose surname, translated, is “Foxhunter.” This is clearly a fragment of a fictional work, and in fact anticipates in tone and syntactic development (and the invention of comical names) the “Detti memorabili di Filippo Ottonieri,” one of the twenty Operette morali written in 1824. See also Z 2481.

  Z 2397

  1. Note that “proximo” means “neighbor” in a Christian sense according to Franciosini’s dictionary.

  Z 2399

  1. Leopardi presumably has the dictionary of the Académie Française in mind here.

  Z 2400

  1. A feast celebrated on the Friday of Passion Week, i.e., the Friday before Palm Sunday.

  Z 2401

  1. See Z 4389–90.

  Z 2402

  1. Leopardi refers here to the Roman History of Cassius Dio Cocceianus. In the passage cited, bk. 60, ch. 8, Emperor Claudius had, in exceptional circumstances, granted Agrippa of Judaea and his brother Herod permission to deliver their speech of thanks to him in the Senate in Greek. The next quotation is from p. 739, note 91.

  2. See Rousseau, Émile, bk. 2 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 307): “The first law of resignation comes to us from nature. Both savages and beasts fight very little against death and endure it almost without complaint. When this law is destroyed, another is formed which comes from reason” (Damiani).

  Z 2404

  1. There follows a ms. marginal addition. Cf. Z 223, 484–85, 1978–82, 2549–55, 3784.

  2. Virgil, Aeneid 6, 727.

  Z 2405

  1. I.e., aleph and resh.

  Z 2406

  1. Cf. similar remarks on the increasing uniformity of the world on Z 147–49 (and note). Leopardi’s views will be confirmed when he lives for some months (Nov. 1822–May 1823) in Rome.

  Z 2408

  1. See Z 995 and note 2.

  Z 2414

  1. Della Casa, Galateo, loc. cit., vol. 3, p. 295.

  2. See Z 649 (see note 2). Here a peculiar characteristic of his handwriting indicates that Leopardi rectified his erroneous attribution of this dictum to Raynal after March 1826 (see Peruzzi, “Lo Zibaldone leopardiano,” p. 396 [B12]).

  Z 2419

  1. Bartoli, p. 45, writes contorcono, Leopardi misquotes scontorcono, adding an s, a linguistic feature typical of Recanati.

  Z 2420

  1. Cf. “La ginestra” (1836), ll. 304–307: “and unresisting, / you’ll bow your blameless head / under the deadly scythe; / but you will not have bowed before” (trans. Galassi).

  Z 2422

  1. Plutarch, Moralia 866b. Leopardi took this story from J.-J. Barthélemy, Viaggio d’Anacarsi, tome 1, pp. 215–16 (Pacella).

  Z 2424

  1. See Julie’s remarks on the duel between Saint-Preux and Edouard in Rousseau, La nouvelle Héloïse, part 1, letter 57 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, pp. 152–60), where “honneur apparent” [“apparent honor”] is opposed to “honneur réel
” [“real honor”]. For historical reflections on the duel, regarded by the philosophes as a regrettable survival from “Gothic” times, see Victor G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History; Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy, Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1988.

  Z 2427

  1. See the remark by Thomas cited on Z 217.

  Z 2430

  1. Leopardi here alludes to the “Molyneux problem,” on which see Z 1569 and note.

  2. On the tendency to believe that everything is animated, and to imagine shapes similar to one’s own, see Z 19 (where Leopardi quotes Xenophanes, see note 2) and 53, end.

  Z 2431

  1. Leopardi molds here the concept of “forms of life,” exactly in the same sense in which it will be used by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Note also that in the following passage he calls nature “blind and deaf,” deepening the distance between its “mode of being” and man (Z 1835).

  Z 2433

  1. Cicero, De amicitia 22.

  Z 2435

  1. See Z 76–79.

  Z 2437

  1. Cf. Z 930. A similar notion of “equilibrium” is in Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1841), Lecture 6, London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905, p. 248, where he describes “self-interest and the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries.”

  Z 2438

  1. That is, the bellum omnium contra omnes described by Hobbes in Leviathan, ch. 13 and in De cive 1, 12.

  Z 2440

  1. We are here concerned with the strand of the Zibaldone which Leopardi later dubbed “Social Machiavellianism” (see Leopardi’s 1827 Index).

  Z 2442

  1. This autobiographical anecdote was added to the margins of the manuscript on Z 2442–44 and 2449–50. It may therefore postdate “Ultimo canto di Saffo” (May 1822), where Leopardi expresses Sappho’s grief for her “unlovely form” (l. 54, trans. Galassi). In a letter to his sister Paolina of 18 May 1830 (Epistolario, p. 1731), Leopardi describes being called “that hunchback Leopardi.” Cf. Z 3058–59 and note.

  Z 2443

  1. Leopardi’s sources were Soave and Sulzer (see, for example, Z 807).

  Z 2449

  1. The mythical stables cleansed by Hercules, as one of his labors.

  Z 2452

  1. Della consolazione della filosofia, Varchi’s rendering of Boethius, was published in Florence in 1551 (the 1785 ed. is held in the LL). Domenico Cavalca’s early fourteenth-century translation of the Vitae patrum (see Z 2645 and note) was very influential in Leopardi’s education: a few months later (fall 1822) he will imitate Cavalca’s language and style in the translation of an early Christian chronicle, the Martirio de’ santi Padri (in Volgarizzamenti [B2], pp. 185–207). Bartolomeo da San Concordio (1262–1347) translated into Italian his collection of sayings, entitled Ammaestramenti antichi, which had originally been in Latin.

  Z 2453

  1. See Corinne, bk. 7, ch. 2, tome 1, p. 317. Staël had in mind here the image of the writer delineated in Alfieri’s treatise Del principe e delle lettere, a person who, because he was unable to act under a tyranny, cultivated his art to win glory and to benefit his fellow citizens. Leopardi, like Staël herself, may also have had in mind Foscolo, Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis, letter of 23 December 1797.

  Z 2454

  1. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, loc. cit., discusses the manual occupations, held in low esteem because they exhaust the body and leave no time for cultivating friendship and serving one’s country.

  Z 2456

  1. Leopardi cites here Alfieri, satire 7, “L’antireligioneria,” l. 238, the last line, in Satire, Verona 1800, p. 49. There follows an addition in parentheses.

  2. Like the mother, presumably Leopardi’s own, portrayed on Z 353–56.

  Z 2457

  1. Guido Ceronetti has noted that the word beato always refers in Leopardi to a metaphysical dimension. See his preface to the Libro dei Salmi, Milan: Adelphi, 1985, p. XXIX.

  Z 2458

  1. See Z 1660, where this point is correctly attributed to Salviati.

  Z 2460

  1. Leopardi refers here to Codex 3199 of the Vatican Library, which was published in 1820 by Aloisio Fantoni, as “La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri di mano del Boccaccio.” He had probably read the review in Biblioteca Italiana, tome 22, May 1821, pp. 295–300. Shortly afterward, however, this same manuscript was attributed to another hand (Pacella).

  Z 2461

  1. Leopardi transcribed this passage from Volpi’s Preface to the Bologna edition of 1746, where he also found the history of the editions of Alamanni, pp. II–III.

  2. This reference is a marginal addition. See Opere, vol. 2, p. 130. Della Casa notes that the original spelling of his letters will be respected, though abbreviated words will be resolved and additional punctuation inserted so as to assist the reader.

  Z 2468

  1. Leopardi appended lengthy annotations to his own Canzoni (which would be published in volume form in Bologna in 1824). One of them is related to the adjective “ferrata,” as employed in “Bruto minore,” l. 31 (“iron necessity,” trans. Galassi); see Poesie, p. 187. The poem had been written in December 1821.

  Z 2471

  1. The edition in question is De re rustica libri XII, Lyons 1541, p. 408 (ch. 3). This passage is now at 12, 2, 4.

  Z 2477

  1. Hugh Blair, Essays on Rhetoric, London 1784, which Leopardi knew in an Italian translation published in Venice in 1803, with a commentary by Soave.

  Z 2478

  1. See Z 39, note 1.

  2. See Algarotti, Saggio sopra l’opera in musica, in Opere, tome 3, pp. 253–327, here in particular p. 267.

  Z 2479

  1. Compare, however, Z 316–17, where Leopardi invokes Theophrastus in order to dispute the notion that wisdom is any guarantee of happiness.

  Z 2480

  1. The retreat of Cyrus’s Greek hoplite mercenaries after the battle of Cunassa (401 BCE) is described by Xenophon in his Anabasis.

  2. The exploits of the conquistadores in Mexico were known to Leopardi through the account of Solís.

  Z 2481

  1. Another sketch of a novelistic plot (see Z 1885–87), probably a note for what will be the operetta morale “Detti memorabili di Filippo Ottonieri” (cf. Z 2396–97).

  Z 2483

  1. Here Leopardi displays his insight into the difference between what classicists and anthropologists will label as “shame” and “guilt” cultures. One might be reminded of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals (see, for example, the “Second Essay,” ch. 22 for similar imagery) and of the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious elaborated—well before Freud—by nineteenth-century novelists such as Dostoyevsky and Stevenson.

  Z 2486

  1. Xenophon, Memorabilia 3, 8, 2–7.

  Z 2488

  1. See Cicero, Philippics 2, 34–35; Plutarch, Caesar 60–61.

  2. A rare instance of Leopardi explicitly correcting himself. Cf. Z 2563 and note.

  Z 2491

  1. See Z 57 and note 3, 2153–55.

  2. Compare the letter to Giordani of 5 January 1821: “Nor do I now find that any other virtue is needed, except for patience, which I was not born to” (Epistolario, p. 472, trans. Prue Shaw). And see Z 112 for a striking aphorism on patience. The next sentence, up to “another individual,” is added in the ms.

  3. According to the Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (GDLI), ed. S. Battaglia, 21 vols. and supplements, Turin: UTET, 1961–2009, the term sè, i.e., “self,” is not in evidence in the Italian language (save with one exception) prior to Leopardi, and to his immediate contemporaries (Tommaseo, Rosmini).

  Z 2492

  1. See, in particular, “Bruto minore,” ll. 52–75, and cf. Z 1978ff., 2402ff.

  Z 2493

  1. On “practical” versus “theoretical” morality, see Z 520–22 and note.

  Z 2495

  1. That is, “enjoying them” (in Spanish).

  2. After having admitted (in the
preceding thought) that self-love is necessary to happiness, Leopardi explores the paradox by which it also causes unhappiness (the “contradiction” of Z 4087 and 4099–100): the more self-love is “humiliated,” the happier human beings can be. Leopardi certainly relies on ancient ethics, but the choice of the word mortificato reveals in the background a Christian and ascetic tradition of self-restraint. By his own routes Leopardi thus meets Schopenhauer and some currents of Eastern thought, that is, in Beckett’s words, “the wisdom of all the sages, from Brahma to Leopardi, the wisdom that consists not in the satisfaction but in the ablation of desire” (Samuel Beckett, Proust, London: Chatto & Windus, 1931, p. 7).

  Z 2496

  1. With the parenthetical reference to Della Casa, Leopardi may be alluding to the letters sent by Della Casa to his nephews Pandolfo and Annibale Rucellai, two of which would be anthologized in his own prose Crestomazia, pp. 189–95 (Damiani). Pacella, however, may be right in maintaining that Leopardi is in error here, and really has in mind Caro, whose piece on the “Costume dei giovani,” likewise included in the Crestomazia (pp. 447–48), is more pertinent to what Leopardi is saying in this thought.

  Z 2498

  1. For the references to Salvini, Leopardi consulted the Crusca dictionary, under Ammanierato, and Alberti’s dictionary.

  2. Leopardi comments on the recherché style of Montesquieu’s Temple of Gnide on Z 160 and 232.

  Z 2500

  1. The proposition that humanity had its origins in the Orient was articulated by, among others, Friedrich Schlegel, in Über die Sprache und die Weisheit der Indier [On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians] (1808).

  Z 2503

  1. This is an unattached marginal addition. See in particular Apologia, p. 32. Predella is in fact a fictitious character invented by Caro for the purpose of his polemic.

  Z 2509

  1. First and second barbarism are Vichian concepts; see Z 314 and note 1.

  Z 2514

  1. That is, Horace, Ars poetica 46–59.

  Z 2515

  1. Leopardi may here be alluding to passages from Cicero, De oratore, for example, 3, 12, 45.

  Z 2516

  1. The parenthesis and the reference to Z 2525 (where Leopardi comments on Caro’s letter-writing) are added in the margin. The same is true of other kinds of autobiographical writings (see Z 61), what Leopardi calls “scrittura non letterata” (“writing which is not literary”: Z 1204). See, however, what he says of his own very careful letter-writing in his letter to Brighenti of 9 June 1820 (Epistolario, p. 419).