Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

Z 4462

  1. On the refutation of teleology see Z 56 and note 5. The extinction of species was a crucial theme in pre-Darwinian life sciences. On nature acting “in spite of” itself see the thought on Z 583–84 and note.

  Z 4463

  1. Orelli points to a correspondence between Greek and German.

  2. Leopardi quotes Orelli, vol. 2, p. 554, who quotes Moeris.

  Z 4464

  1. Thucydides 1, 21, 1. Leopardi follows up from Z 4406 and 4431. All the following quotations are taken from Scapula, Tusanus, and Guillaume Budé’s Commentarii linguae Graece, Paris 1548 (= LL). Arrian’s examples are taken from the LL edition of 1757.

  Z 4465

  1. Pausanias 1, 34.

  2. The reference is to “poetry of style.”

  3. In English in the original.

  Z 4466

  1. Leopardi quotes from Girolamo Amati, “Scelta d’iscrizioni recentemente scoperte,” pp. 215–50. He was certainly attracted by some of Amati’s remarks, such as: “The people spoke and wrote a Latin all its own, which paid no attention to grammatical rules and restrictions,” and, regarding the following piece, “A more than classical form of dialogue between the traveler and someone buried at the side of the road” (p. 235). Note that the year before, Leopardi had composed “A Silvia,” and in the following months he would compose “Le ricordanze”: two poems that are in fact dialogues with the dead.

  2. Another inscription published by Amati, quoted above. Leopardi would have probably expected the spelling “Maevius,” hence his “(sic).”

  Z 4467

  1. For the meaning of logos see the discussion on Z 4402–404. The division of the Anabasis into seven books is considered in fact posterior to Xenophon.

  2. See Z 2395, note 2. On the absence of an introduction in Xenophon see Z 466.

  Z 4468

  1. See Z 2900 and note. Rudiments and minimal bodily modifications (as opposed to large evolutionary “leaps”) are a crucial issue in pre-Darwinian evolutionary theories. See, for example, what Lamarck writes in his Système des animaux sans vertèbres (Paris 1801, pp. 409–10): “If … the diversity of circumstances entails, for living beings, a diversity of habits and modes of life, leading to modifications or developments of their organs or of the form of their parts, then one must understand that the organization and form of all living beings must vary imperceptibly,” a passage commented on by Pietro Corsi, The Age of Lamarck. Evolutionary Theories in France 1790–1830, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1988, p. 113. See Z 4510. Although he devoted himself to the natural sciences in the 1820s, Johannes Hauch (1790–1872) is best known as a poet and dramatist.

  Z 4469

  1. In English in the original.

  2. In his later years Leopardi resumes an old project (of 1819), never realized. This thought echoes a letter to Giordani of 24 July 1828: “In the end I begin to feel nauseated by the arrogant disdain professed here for all literature and everything beautiful: especially as I cannot get into my head that the pinnacle of human knowledge is knowing about politics and statistics. Indeed, reflecting philosophically on the almost perfect uselessness of the studies made from the age of Solon on to attain the perfection of civil states and the happiness of nations, I am inclined to laugh at this frenzy of political and legislative calculations and quibbling; and I humbly ask if the happiness of nations can exist without the happiness of individuals. Individuals are condemned to unhappiness by nature, not by men and not by chance: and as a consolation for this inevitable unhappiness I think that the study of beauty, of feelings, imaginations, illusions, is more effective than anything else. So it is that the delightful seems to me more useful than everything useful, and literature more truly and certainly useful than all these very arid disciplines” (Letters, pp. 222–23 [B3]; Epistolario, pp. 1534–35). See also Z 4497 and the thought by Rousseau cited on Z 4502, paragraph 4.

  3. Quoted from Orelli, vol. 2, p. 182. The same quotation on Z 4188.

  4. See Theophrastus, Les caractères, ed. Koraes, pp. 166–69.

  Z 4470

  1. Orelli, vol. 2, pp. 585–86, discusses Diogenes Laertius 6, 62.

  Z 4472

  1. The Latin translation comes from Orelli, vol. 2, p. 248. As to La Bruyère, Leopardi is probably referring to the edition of the Caractères cited on Z 4147, also mentioned in a ms. note called “Cose omesse” (published by Elisabetta Brozzi in her doctoral dissertation Edizione critica del Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi, Perugia 2008, p. 3).

  2. Petrarch, Rime 231, 4.

  Z 4473

  1. See Antologia, no. 84, December 1827, p. 298.

  2. Example taken from Orelli, vol. 2, p. 763.

  Z 4474

  1. See Z 1337 and 2289 on “Sunt lacrimae rerum.”

  2. A corollary to Z 4058–60.

  3. Phaedrus, Fabulae 3, 5, 3.

  4. Quotation taken from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 633, note d). This thought is also cited by Chateaubriand, Génie du Christianisme, part 2, bk. 3, ch. 8, tome 2, p. 156.

  5. Quotation taken from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 654); the emphasis is Leopardi’s.

  Z 4475

  1. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman who conquered and governed the city of Valencia (eleventh century), becoming the national hero of Spain.

  2. This sentence is a marginal addition.

  3. That is, Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. On Niebuhr see Z 4446.

  Z 4476

  1. That is, the Malmantile racquistato, Lorenzo Lippi’s heroicomic poem (Florence 1688).

  Z 4477

  1. Leopardi alludes to the maxim often attributed to Machiavelli, that “the end justifies the means,” and turns it upside down. See Z 4518.

  2. Leopardi read the allegorical Tabula attributed to Cebes in Bologna, in 1826 (ed. Simpson). He had even planned to translate it. His philological notes are now published in Scritti filologici, pp. 635–36.

  3. See Voltaire, “Idée de la Henriade” (Leopardi could read this text in Opere scelte, tome 2, pp. 127–28).

  4. As early as 1815 Leopardi had composed his Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi. In 1817 he wrote the first page of a new version; subsequently on three different occasions (1826, 1829, 1831) he planned to publish his juvenile work; none of these projects was brought to completion. This is probably the sketch of a new introduction. See also Z 4484.

  Z 4478

  1. This quotation from vol. 2 of Rousseau’s Pensées (= LL) is a ms. unattached marginal addition. It derives from Émile, bk. 3 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 428).

  2. On the idea of a return to ancient wisdom see Z 305 and note. See also Z 4171–72, 4192–93, 4289, 4500–501, 4507–508. To this year probably belongs the sketch of a work never realized, called “Parallel between the civilization of the ancients (that is, Greeks and Romans) and that of the moderns” perhaps inspired by Dutens (see Z 4221), where Leopardi would have maintained that “modern civilization is a Rebirth; a great part of what in this field we call acquiring is no more than recovering” (Prose, p. 1217).

  3. On divine envy see Z 454 and note. On Polycrates cf. Z 198 and note.

  Z 4479

  1. Chiabrera, Opere, vol. 1, p. XXVIII. The same quotation is in the review of Chiabrera’s Poesie scelte (Milan 1826) in Antologia, tome 22, no. 66, June 1826, p. 129.

  2. Leopardi planned to write a new essay on Romanticism, after that of 1818; see Z 15 and note 1. Leopardi knew Byron quite well (cf. Z 223 and note 2); it is unlikely, on the other hand, that he read Goethe’s Faust, except perhaps the passages quoted by Staël in her De l’Allemagne.

  3. Antologia, tome 33, no. 97, January 1828, pp. 101–27, here p. 125.

  4. Leopardi refers to Goethe’s Werther (see Z 56 and note 4); Chateaubriand’s Génie du Christianisme (see Z 15 and note 2, 53 and note 1); Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Paul and Virginia. On Ossian see Z 205 and note 2.

  5. See Z 29
44 and note, 4440, 4497.

  Z 4480

  1. Work cited by Orelli, vol. 2, p. X.

  2. Ocellus Lucanus, De rerum natura, ed. A.F.W. Rudolph, Leipzig 1801. There follows, down to the date, a lengthy addition, written by Leopardi on the following page and inserted here with a sign.

  3. The work by Christoph Meiners, Geschichte des Ursprungs, Fortgangs und Verfalls der Wissenschaften in Griechenland und Rom, Lemgo 1781, is quoted by Orelli, vol. 1, p. IX.

  4. The interpolation by Leopardi refers to the edition Eclogarum libri duo, ed. Willem Canter, Antwerp 1575.

  Z 4481

  1. These are three entries in the 1827 Index. The theme of the last one has already surfaced on Z 4245, 4286, 4441.

  2. Della Casa, Galateo, ch. 29, in Opere, vol. 3, p. 302.

  Z 4482

  1. The project of a book never realized. See the heading of one of the separate slips not referred to in the 1827 Index: “Treatise on the passions, human qualities, etc.”

  2. Leopardi refers to Cleobulus’s advice in Laertius, cited on Z 206.

  3. This is Orelli’s Latin translation of the statement.

  Z 4483

  1. That is, the so-called Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek (third century BCE).

  2. Petrarch, Rime 366, ll. 96–97. Leopardi quotes from memory, and writes “infamia rea” for “fama rea.”

  3. Leopardi translated this work three times, in 1815, 1821–1822, and 1826.

  4. See Z 191–92, 2645–48, 3771, 4475–77.

  Z 4484

  1. See Z 4477 and note 4.

  Z 4485

  1. An example—according to Leopardi—of the common origin of all languages; see also Z 4429.

  2. The original title of Charles-Hippolyte de Paravey’s work, the object of Bossi’s dissertations, is Essai sur l’origine unique et hiéroglyphique des chiffres et des lettres de tous les peuples, Paris 1826. Leopardi read the review by Tommaseo in Antologia, no. 105, September 1829, pp. 103–107. He probably expected—Pacella notes—the spelling “Stamperia Regia,” not “Reale,” hence his “(sic).”

  3. On the poetics of memory (rimembranza) see Z 4426 and note 2.

  4. This parenthesis is a later addition.

  Z 4486

  1. Leopardi has reversed his idea of a “cycle” whereby “death serves life,” and therefore of nature as a “benign mother of the whole” (Z 1530–31). See also Z 4129–30, 4174–77, 4257–59, 4461–62, 4485–86, 4510–11, and a premonitory passage on Z 1645 (see note). On the sources of Leopardi’s materialism see Z 4248 and note 5.

  Z 4488

  1. See Z 108–109 and note.

  Z 4489

  1. When the neuter form of this adjective is used as a noun (viaticum) it means: “provision for the journey.”

  Z 4490

  1. According to Pacella, this word is neither in Forcellini nor in Borghesi.

  2. See, e.g., Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; Daniel 9:27.

  Z 4491

  1. The full Italian title of this essay is “Discorso sopra lo stato presente dei costumi degl’Italiani”; here Leopardi has varied it slightly. See another thought along the same lines at Z 4493.

  2. This thought is extracted from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 5, letter 2 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, pp. 536–38).

  3. Leopardi had expressed very sharp criticism of Petrarch in a letter to his publisher Stella in 1826, while his annotated edition of the Rime was coming out (Epistolario, pp. 1236–37).

  Z 4492

  1. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 6, letter 8 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 693). In these months Leopardi copies various thoughts from this edition of the Pensées, which inspired his project of a book of 111 Pensieri (never published in his lifetime).

  2. This thought is extracted from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 645).

  3. See Z 4049–50, also for the translation of the expression lesto fante, added after the date.

  4. See Z 4426 and note 2.

  Z 4493

  1. It often happens that Leopardi, who never was a novelist, sketches the conceptual skeleton of a plot (cf. Z 1886–87 and notes). One is reminded here of Balzac’s Illusions perdues (1836–43).

  2. This thought follows on from Z 4491, on the basis of Leopardi’s personal experience.

  Z 4494

  1. Leopardi alludes to Giovanni Rosini, professor and writer, whom he knew in Pisa in 1827–28.

  2. Voltaire, Vie de Charles XII (= LL), recounts that while the king was dictating a letter, a bomb went off: when his secretary stopped, the king told him to go on, saying, “What has the bomb got to do with the letter I am dictating to you? Continue.” See, among others, the lengthy thought on courage on Z 3526–40.

  Z 4495

  1. Petrarch, Triumphus temporis, l. 99.

  2. Petrarch, Rime 66, 1.

  3. For the poetics of memory (rimembranza), see Z 4426 and note 2; for “similarities and relationships” cf. Z 1650 and note.

  4. In English in the original.

  Z 4497

  1. The rest of the sentence is added in the margin, as well as the passage from “or, against” to “truth.” Meditating on the role of literature in the modern world in view of an essay which he never wrote (see Z 4469, and also 4367, 4388), Leopardi arrives at a premonitory definition of modern poetry, anticipated on Z 2944–46 and 4479.

  Z 4498

  1. Damiani recalls Pascal, Pensées (ed. Brunschvicg), § 131. See Z 3876, 4043.

  Z 4500

  1. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 3, letter 18 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 348). See Z 4492, note 1.

  2. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 6, letter 8 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 693).

  3. This thought comes from Discours sur les sciences et les arts, part 2 (in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 19).

  4. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 1 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 269).

  Z 4501

  1. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 676).

  2. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 669).

  3. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 2, letter 5 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 204).

  Z 4502

  1. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 3 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 486).

  2. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 1, letter 60 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 166). Condulmari and Galamini are noblemen from Recanati, mentioned in Leopardi’s correspondence as examples of arrogance and opportunism.

  3. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 667).

  4. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Nouvelle Héloïse, part 4, letter 10 (in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 442): “Partout on a substitué l’utile à l’agréable, et l’agréable y a presque toujours gagné.” See also Z 4469 and note 2.

  5. Rousseau, Pensées, vol. 2, loc. cit. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 2 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 418).

  Z 4504

  1. On this idea see Z 3472–77 (and note 1 to Z 3473), in relation to the ancients, as opposed to the moderns.

  2. This thought might be related to the project mentioned on Z 4469; and see the passage of his letter to Giordani quoted there in the note, which explains this pessimistic view of modern literature.

  3. This word does not feature in the Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (see note 3 to Z 2491 for details).

  Z 4505

  1. Compare Maupertuis, Essai de philosophie morale, ch. 2: “That in everyday life the sum of ills surpasses that of goods” (Oeuvres, Dresden 1752, pp. 381–82).

  Z 4506

  1. The word pulta is not in Forcellini; it is given by Du Cange as “vox italica” derived
from the Latin puls-pultis.

  Z 4507

  1. See Z 4478 and note 2.

  2. This is perhaps an allusion to Niebuhr (Pacella).

  Z 4508

  1. Leopardi theorizes what René Girard will describe as “mimetic desire”; see for example his Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque, Paris: Grasset, 1961.

  2. The same maxim has been cited on Z 4153–54. Leopardi might still be thinking of the less than enthusiastic welcome accorded his Operette morali in 1827.

  Z 4509

  1. In Lirici antichi serj e giocosi fino al secolo 16, Venice 1784, p. 213 (l. 13).

  Z 4510

  1. This thought, which recalls the debates on the extinction of species paramount to the development of pre-Darwinian life sciences, challenges the “harmony” of nature theorized on Z 1530–31 and 1597ff. See also Z 56 and note 5, 4461–62, 4467–69. On Leopardi’s materialistic sources and on Strato in particular see Z 4248 and note 5.

  Z 4511

  1. This thought comes from Émile, bk. 4 (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 588). The following comment by Leopardi marks a radical detachment from Rousseau’s idea that evil is not in the order of things, but in man. According to Damiani, only Sade had reached the radical conclusion that evil is “ordinary,” that is, “in the system of nature.” See Z 175 and note 2, 4129–30, 4174–77 and note, 4257–59, 4461–62, 4485–86.

  Z 4512

  1. I.e., the 1827 Index.

  2. This sentence is in Italian, but written in Greek characters for reasons of secrecy; it reads “mia nonna, Ad. Maestri, la zia Isabella con Carlo,” that is “my grandmother [Virginia Mosca], Adelaide Maestri [one of Leopardi’s best friends, from Parma], aunt Isabella [Antici] with Carlo [his brother].”

  Z 4513

  1. See Z 4426 and note 2.

  Z 4515

  1. See Z 136, 259–60, 3161.

  Z 4516

  1. The passage from “either in diminutive” is an addition placed here with a sign.

  Z 4517

  1. See Z 4481 and note 1.

  Z 4518

  1. On this “true natural law” cf. Z 2672 and note 4.

  2. Both headings are among the separate slips not referred to in the 1827 Index, and are titles of two unrealized projects.

  3. See Z 4477.

  Z 4519

  1. Pontedera, “Praefatio,” fol. b2r.