Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Z 4216

  1. Leopardi gives here the Latin translation of the second part of the Greek expression mentioned above: “of speech.”

  2. Alfieri, Vita, Epoch 4, ch. 11, vol. 2, p. 88.

  3. In the margin of the ms. the beginning of the passage from Demetrius is translated in another way by Leopardi.

  Z 4217

  1. On this occasion Leopardi’s translation precedes the original Greek of Demetrius, which comes from Rhetores selecti, p. 46.

  2. In the Apophthegmata Laconica of Plutarch (Moralia 236d), the tale is recounted of a man who, spending the night in the vicinity of a tomb, believed that he had seen a demon, hurled himself at him, and hitting out at him said what Leopardi reports here.

  3. On the similarity of the characters Δ and Λ, that can easily be confused in writing, see Z 153.

  4. Leopardi here translates the Greek passage into Italian.

  Z 4218

  1. Here too Leopardi translates the Greek passage into Italian.

  2. Quoted in Rhetores selecti, p. 83.

  3. Cornelia Bandi of Cesena had been discovered one morning reduced to ashes. As Pacella notes, this macabre tale had been recounted in a letter written by Scipione Maffei (Opere, Venice 1790, vol. 3, pp. 117ff.) which Leopardi had read in 1815.

  Z 4219

  1. A note by Schott, here translated into English from the Latin.

  2. The insertion of a “sic” reflects Leopardi’s justified perplexity regarding the use of this verb in such a context.

  3. This commentary in Latin is by Leopardi.

  Z 4220

  1. This commentary in Latin is by Leopardi.

  2. This commentary in Latin is by Leopardi.

  Z 4221

  1. Dutens, Origine, vol. 1, p. 28.

  2. See Z 106 and note 1.

  3. Elsewhere Leopardi seems, however, to adhere to Isidore’s position. See, for example, the passages in which the value of seeing many things at a single glance is extolled, as on Z 1850–56, 3245, 3269, and the note to Z 1650. Cf. also Z 4222 and note 2.

  Z 4222

  1. Leopardi here gives Schott’s Latin translation.

  2. Another trace of ambivalence, as on Z 4221 (see note 3). This thought summarizes a strand of anti-Platonism in Leopardi’s thought, which could be explained (see Timpanaro, Classicismo, p. 213 [B11]) as a reaction to a Christian interpretation of Plato in Restoration Europe. It clashes however with other thoughts where Leopardi subordinates reason and the “exact methods of knowing the truth” to “sentiment, to enthusiasm, to inspiration.” See, e.g., Z 1833–39, 1850–56, 3237–45, 3269–71, 3382–85, and the Longinian interpretation of poetry as “impetus” (Z 4356, and cf. Z 21–22, 3139–40). On Leopardi’s complex relationship with Plato see D’Intino, L’immagine della voce, and Natale, Il canto delle idee (B11).

  3. This passage is quoted from Rhetores selecti, p. 114; the Latin translations are by Gale.

  Z 4223

  1. The example cited in this passage is Menander, fr. 763 Kock. The declamation is that of an actor.

  2. Monti, Proposta, vol. 3, part 1, p. 175; and see Z 761.

  Z 4224

  1. That is, Demetrius, in Rhetores selecti, loc. cit.

  2. The verses of Aratus are cited from the ed. cited on Z 4151 (see note 1). For other examples of a redundant “così” [so, thus] cf. Z 3170, 4121, 4164, and 4211.

  Z 4225

  1. These passages by various authors in Stobaeus (Leopardi uses the Basel 1549 edition, pp. 538–39; see now 4, 36, 14, 16–17, 20, and 22 Hense) all contain examples of the construction ποιέω with πρὸς and the accusative, in the sense of “be useful for” or “do good to” (Pacella).

  Z 4226

  1. In Diogenes Laertius, De vitis, vol. 2, pp. 502ff.

  2. Stobaeus 4, 33, 31 Hense, cited from Orelli. The proverb is already in Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1098a, 16.

  3. The passage from Stobaeus 4, 28, 19 Hense is cited from the Basel 1549 edition, p. 485, quoted secondhand from Orelli, vol. 2, p. 352. This is a case where, in Leopardi’s judgment, the verb “to wish” has in Greek the meaning “to have to.”

  4. What is used in the sentence from Hierocles (a Stoic philosopher of the early second century CE), reported by Stobaeus 4, 27, 20 Hense (see above) as in Z 4165, paragraph 3, is the expression Τὴν πρώτην [from the beginning] (Pacella).

  5. This discourse of Stobaeus is numbered 84 by Hugo Grotius (Dicta poetarum apud Io. Stobaeum exstant, Paris 1623) and 82 by Conrad Gessner (Sententiae, ed. Basel 1549, p. 475).

  Z 4227

  1. This was the end of the sentence, followed by the date, after which Leopardi added a new sentence, transforming the period into a semicolon. This entry, written five days after Leopardi’s return to Recanati from Bologna on 11 November 1826, has been seen as an anticipation of the ideas of human solidarity against nature which inform the poem “La ginestra” (1836).

  2. Casaubon’s Animadversiones, pp. 182–83 (on Athenaeus 160d).

  3. Casaubon’s Animadversiones, p. 182 (on Athenaeus 158e).

  Z 4228

  1. This entry follows on from the series of thoughts on Z 4127–32, 4133–34, 4137, 4168–69, all depending on the turning-point thought of June 1824 on Z 4099–100.

  2. The expression of Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, i.e., Interpretation of Dreams 2, 12, is translated by Tassoni as “et quod solet dici, cornua tibi faciet” (see Varietà di pensieri, Modena 1613 [= LL], loc. cit., p. 391).

  Z 4229

  1. Sannazaro, Opere volgari, vol. 1, p. 126.

  2. In English in the original. Cited from the London 1803 ed. (= LL), vol. 1, p. 217.

  Z 4231

  1. Transcribed from “Dell’avarizia. Fisiologia delle passioni,” Nuovo Ricoglitore, year 2, part 2, November 1826, pp. 789–91, in which there is a translation of passages from Jean-Louis Alibert, Physiologie des passions. Nouvelle doctrine des sentimens moraux, first edition, Paris 1825.

  Z 4232

  1. Casaubon’s Animadversiones, pp. 217 and 161 (on Athenaeus 196b and 134f).

  Z 4233

  1. A review of ancient and modern opinions about the fact that time does not exist in itself is in Dutens, Origine, part 4, ch. 3, tome 2, pp. 162–66. The same chapter also summarizes Descartes’s views about space.

  Z 4234

  1. See David M. Bickerton, Marc-Auguste and Charles Pictet, the Bibliothèque Britannique (1796–1815) and the Dissemination of British Literature and Science on the Continent, Geneva: Slatkine, 1986.

  Z 4235

  1. See Z 4356–57.

  Z 4236

  1. The three examples are added in the margin. The Suda recalls that Sappho composed elegies, epigrams, and monodies. Leopardi, who did not own a copy of this work, may have gleaned this information from De’ Rogati, tome 2, p. 189 (Pacella).

  2. Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, tome 7, part 3, pp. 295–97.

  Z 4237

  1. That is, Pietro degli Angeli da Barga. See the letter of 24 May 1575, Opere, tome 10, pp. 78ff., and the Apologia, loc. cit.: “… when I began my poem, I did not know that anyone else was dealing with this material … I learned later that Barga was writing it in Latin verse … but since the story line was different, I felt I did not need to halt my undertaking.” These references to Tasso are added in the ms. margin.

  2. Here Leopardi stresses the impersonal use of dice for “they say,” as on Z 2676–77, 2987, 3904, and 4024.

  3. See Z 995 and note 2.

  4. This entry refers back to what Leopardi had noted on Z 3066–71. On the reasons for decline after the seventeenth century see Z 3860–61.

  Z 4238

  1. Another example of a redundant altro meaning “any, none.” Leopardi refers here to the Padua edition of 1744, in 4 volumes, of the Opere of Galileo (= LL).

  2. Casaubon’s Animadversiones, pp. 259–62.

  3. See D’Intino, L’immagine della voce, ch. 3 (B11).

  Z 4239


  1. See Z 3496 and note 2, 3506 and note.

  2. In 1827 the title will become a heading for one of the separate slips not referred to in the 1827 Index; see in particular Z 4249–50, 4259–60, 4265, 4274, 4502, 4518. Similar projects, with reference to Epictetus (e.g., an “Epictetus of My Own Devising”), were formulated in 1825 and in February 1829 (Prose, pp. 1215 and 1217). See Z 112, paragraph 3. This particular thought, inspired by Stoic philosophy, echoes the preface to Leopardi’s version of the Handbook of Epictetus, composed in Bologna between November and 9 December 1825.

  Z 4240

  1. The collection of fragments was published in Venice in 1817. On Pletho’s oration see Z 997, and note 1. On the role played by fortune among the ancients see also Z 316–17, 3072–73, 3098, 3342–43, 3382, 4119, and 4309, a continuation of the present thought.

  Z 4242

  1. Magalotti, Lettere familiari, letter 28, vol. 1, pp. 504–505.

  2. See Z 2599 and note. In this work (Pesaro 1825 = LL) Paoli expounds the theory of Laplace, who had conjectured, like Buffon before him, that the earth had initially been a spinning spheroid of hot fluid and had been cooling ever since.

  3. This widespread view (see, e.g., the review of G. Gautieri, Dello influsso de’ boschi sullo stato fisico de’ paesi, Milan 1817, in Biblioteca Italiana, tome 8, 1817, pp. 269–75) had been contested by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre in his Études de la Nature, IV.

  Z 4243

  1. Firenzuola, Opere, vol. 2; Bembo, Opere, tome 2, p. 10 (the Asolani are printed at the end of the tome, with a different numbering).

  2. Speroni, “In morte del Card. Pietro Bembo,” in Orationi, p. 145; Tasso, dedicatory letter to the dialogue “La cavalletta, o della poesia toscana,” in Opere, loc. cit.; Lettere di principi, ed. G. Ruscelli, tome 1 (a collection of letters written by or to princes).

  3. Firenzuola, Opere, vol. 2. Leopardi is discussing again the use of altro (other) in Italian to mean “any” or “none.”

  4. The first underlining is by Firenzuola, the second by Leopardi.

  5. On ancient pain see also the passages listed in note 4 to Z 76.

  Z 4244

  1. Voltaire, “Les deux consolés,” Italian trans. in Opere scelte, tome 1, p. 295.

  Z 4245

  1. As Casaubon notes, Animadversiones, p. 313 (on Athenaeus 279f), this was the name given for collections made in aid of friends who had fallen on hard times.

  2. Casaubon, Animadversiones, p. 290 (on Athenaeus 265a), on the right enjoyed by slaves in Athens to prosecute their masters and to request to be sold in case of mistreatment.

  3. Athenaeus 286b, 297c, 322f.

  4. Casaubon, Animadversiones, bk. 9, ch. 14, p. 432.

  Z 4246

  1. Tasso, Opere, vol. 6: the “Opposizioni” at pp. 406–408, the “Risposta” at pp. 409–12.

  2. Malespini, Storia fiorentina, pp. 102 and 109.

  3. Ibid., ch. 134, p. 110.

  4. Ibid., ch. 132, p. 108.

  5. Three days of fasting (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) observed at the start of each season.

  6. Cf. Z 4124, note 1, regarding Compagni’s chronicle.

  Z 4248

  1. Plato, Republic 375a and 423b.

  2. See Z 4180, note 1.

  3. Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 23 is as cited by Forcellini.

  4. Ménage, Observationes, vol. 2, p. 277.

  5. The obvious, most detailed source about Strato of Lampsacus (c. 335–c. 269 BCE), the successor of Theophrastus in the Aristotelian school, is Diogenes Laertius 5, 58–64. The critics are puzzled by the choice of Strato (and not, e.g., Democritus) as the spokesperson of Leopardi’s materialistic views in the “Frammento apocrifo di Stratone da Lampsaco,” written in September 1825 and added to the 1845 edition of the Operette morali. Note that this thought echoes Holbach’s assertion in ch. 54 of Le bon sens that “the world … is not ruled by an intelligent being” (p. 42; Italian trans. La filosofia del buon senso, p. 60 = LL), a book read by Leopardi in 1825 (on Holbach see Z 183, note and 3506, note). Cf. Z 4257–59, 4485–86, 4510, and 4181 for the problem of the eternity of matter.

  6. Casaubon, Animadversiones, bk. 9, ch. 10, p. 421 (on Athenaeus 388d) who cites Aelian, Varia historia 3, 42.

  Z 4249

  1. Chesterfield, Letters, vol. 3, p. 151, in English in the original.

  2. The critical views Sismondi had expressed about Petrarch were probably not known to Leopardi directly, through La littérature du midi de l’Europe (see Z 1672 and note 2), but—as Pacella has suggested—through an article of 3 November 1820 in the Gazzetta di Milano.

  3. Chesterfield, Letters, vol. 2, p. 269, in English in the original. The “lauro” refers here to the laurel wreath with which Petrarch was crowned in Rome, in 1341.

  4. See Z 4239, note 2.

  Z 4250

  1. See Z 4145–46, 4165 and note 7. On the ancients limiting themselves to the present see Z 4348.

  Z 4251

  1. In 1825 Leopardi had already translated four of Isocrates’s orations. See Z 4117 and note 5, 4146, note 2. On the importance of Isocrates for Leopardi see D’Intino, L’immagine della voce, ch. 2 (B11) and the Introduction to Leopardi, Volgarizzamenti (B2).

  Z 4252

  1. On the basis of empirical evidence Leopardi refutes the Cartesian distinction between res extensa and res cogitans, and argues for the activity of matter in different forms and degrees. In this passage one might hear the echo of an influential book of his education, Genovesi’s Logica per i giovanetti, see in particular bk. 3, ch. 3, §§ 4–6 (pp. 89–91).

  Z 4253

  1. In this thought from 1827 we may discern the influence of Holbach (see, e.g., Système de la nature, ch. 7: “De l’âme et du système de la spiritualité”). On Leopardi’s knowledge of Holbach see Z 183 (note), 3506 (note), 4248, note 5. That “matter can think” is reasserted on Z 4288–89.

  Z 4255

  1. Chesterfield, Letters, vol. 4, p. 68 (see Z 4280–81 for a follow-up); ibid., p. 72 (see Z 3410–11 for a Leopardian thought with marked affinities with this one); ibid., p. 74. All three passages are given by Leopardi in English in the original.

  2. Casaubon, Animadversiones, p. 527, on Athenaeus 521c–d. The Sybarites established a law that if a cook had invented a good dish of his own, no one else could use his recipe for a whole year.

  3. In a letter to his brother Carlo of 20 February 1823—one of his most beautiful prose passages—Leopardi describes his visit to the tomb of Tasso in Rome. See also “Ad Angelo Mai,” ll. 121–50.

  Z 4256

  1. That civilization headed from south to north, and that modern southern and eastern countries and languages are anthropologically “ancient” is implicit in the philosophy of history of Rousseau (see Essai sur l’origine des langues, ch. 11, in Oeuvres, vol. 5, p. 409). Cf. Z 866–67 and note, 2086, 3676–82.

  Z 4258

  1. An extreme thought which will be explored in depth on Z 4485–86, 4510–11. The following parenthesis is a ms. marginal addition, in which Leopardi reiterates his critique of the philosophers who think that “out of the suffering of every individual without exception, can come a universal good” (Z 4175).

  2. What Leopardi in fact writes here is “il pessimo dei possibili,” and syntactically it refers back to “this order, this universe.” Yet the sentence plainly is designed to evoke Leibniz’s notion of the best of all possible worlds, and Voltaire’s sardonic response in his poem on the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, cited on Z 4175.

  Z 4259

  1. See Z 4239, note 2. On the theme of this thought cf. also Z 172, 649–50, 4043, 4075–76.

  2. See Staël, Corinne, bk. 6, ch. 1, tome 1, p. 231 on Lord Nelvil’s “irresolution.” See also his portrait (in particular his “strict adherence to all his duties”) in bk. 1, ch. 1, ibid., pp. 5–7.

  Z 4263

  1. The last sentence is added at the end of the thought, after the date, and is inserted here by Leopardi.

  2. Chesterfield,
Letters, Letter 217, vol. 2, p. 269, refers to the classics “translated in the time of Leo X (1475–1521), and inscribed to him, under the title of the Collana,” that is, “Collection.”

  Z 4264

  1. In English in the original.

  2. The further specification “indeed a little earlier” is an interlinear addition, and at the same time Leopardi added in the margin the text that is in the note.

  3. Maffei, Opere, vol. 19, p. 312. The preface is addressed to Countess Adelaide Felice Canossa Tering di Seefeld (Pacella).

  4. A testimony of the importance attached by Leopardi to the art of translation is the prefaces to his own translations (Poeti greci e latini, Volgarizzamenti). See also Z 4305–306.

  5. Eustachio Manfredi, in order to support Orsi in his polemic with Bouhours—who had blamed Italian literature for diffusing bad taste across Europe—recorded the debts owed by authors such as Ronsard and Desportes to the Italian poets. Both the editions mentioned are in the LL.

  Z 4265

  1. The episode is recounted in G.-Th.-F. Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, Geneva 1775, vol. 2, pp. 112–13, one of the most radical and corrosive texts of the late Enlightenment, in fact written by a number of different authors (among them, Diderot). Leopardi, as he states, read it in the Leçons anthology, tome 1, pp. 16–18.

  2. Pliny, Naturalis historia 8, 21.

  Z 4266

  1. In English in the original.

  2. For this title see Z 4239 and note 2. The theme of this paragraph has its origin in an earlier thought on Z 172–73. Further reflections on Z 4273–74 and 4518.

  Z 4267

  1. The passage from “or you have to” is a ms. marginal addition.

  2. In English in the original. Pope, The Works, vol. 1, pp. V–VI.

  Z 4268

  1. In English in the original. Ibid., p. X.

  2. In English in the original. Ibid., p. XI. See Pensieri 47.

  3. Casaubon, Animadversiones, p. 622.

  Z 4270

  1. There follows, until the end of the sentence, a ms. marginal addition. See Z 4272 and note, 3511. Leopardi foresees that, in the era of journalism, ephemerality will destroy tradition, and the possibility of accumulating experience, as Benjamin and Kraus will charge one century later: “If it were the intention of the press to have the reader assimilate the information it supplies as part of his own experience, it would not achieve its purpose. But its intention is just the opposite, and it is achieved: to isolate what happens from the realm in which it could affect the experience of the reader. The principles of journalistic information (freshness of the news, brevity, comprehensibility, and, above all, lack of connection between the individual news items) contribute as much to this as does the makeup of the pages and the paper’s style. (Karl Kraus never tired of demonstrating the great extent to which the linguistic usage of newspapers paralyzed the imagination of their readers.) Another reason for the isolation of information from experience is that the former does not enter ‘tradition.’” (Walter Benjamin, “Some Motifs in Baudelaire,” cited in note 1 to Z 82, p. 112.)