2. Cf. Z 1747, 1936.
3. The source of Leopardi’s idea here may be Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Languages, where France is mentioned as “a country whose music all other nations find undecipherable. Ask any foreign musician you like to perform a monologue from French opera, and I challenge you to recognize any part of it”: Rousseau, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 5, p. 412. The general principles of Rousseau’s essay were well known in Italy by this time.
Z 156
1. In Génie du Christianisme, part 1, bk. 3, ch. 2, tome 1, pp. 119–21, Chateaubriand tells of having seen a flute player tame a rattlesnake. See Z 158, note 2.
Z 157
1. Here analogy appears to be defined as an empirically proven law of nature. See Z 66 and note 1, 3649.
Z 158
1. Virgil, Eclogues 8, 71.
2. See Z 156, note 1.
Z 159
1. In this sentence (and in the following entry) we find the first traces of what later became one of the Operette morali, “Elogio degli uccelli,” written in 1824. The “cicadas” might be an echo of Plato’s Phaedrus, 259b–d, quoted in Greek in the ms. of the Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi (1815). See D’Intino, L’immagine, ch. 1 (B11).
Z 160
1. In Della forza de’ corpi che chiamano viva, in Opere, Bologna 1779, tome 1, pp. 119–20, Francesco Maria Cavazzoni Zanotti noted that although “the supremely wise Author of nature” could “create everything,” we could only “admit such things as we know him to have created.”
2. On the theme of geometricization, see Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791). In the Italian peninsula, Vincenzo Cuoco had combined such Burkean arguments with the anti-Cartesian position of Giambattista Vico in his Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napoletana del 1799, Milan 1801. Cf. Z 48 (and note 3), 415.
Z 161
1. Lady Morgan’s France was published in both French and English. Lady Morgan, France, London 1818, vol. 2, p. 329 (the words from “designed” onward are in the original French in the English edition). As Timpanaro notes (“Il Leopardi e la rivoluzione francese,” pp. 136–37 [B12]), this, along with Lamennais, was the only source on the French Revolution available to Leopardi.
Z 162
1. Cicero here expresses his unease at delivering his defense of King Deiotarus in a private house, that of Caesar, rather than in the Forum, which was open to the people.
2. Diogenes Laertius 1, 69.
3. In his Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité (Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 171) Rousseau refers to a specific phase in the development of human faculties, which, “following a just mean between the indolence of the primitive state and the petulant activity of our self-love, must have been the happiest and most durable epoch.” The concept of “middling civilization” (see Z 404 and note), is implied, e.g., on 252, 314–15, 3802. See also Z 304–305 and note.
Z 163
1. Originality (vs. uniformity) is one of the main features of ancient civilizations; but see Z 4525.
2. Montesquieu, Considérations, ch. 9, pp. 101ff. Relying on Montesquieu (but also Machiavelli) Leopardi seems to glimpse the forms of a modern “soft despotism,” as again later on Z 985–86 (see note). On the radical difference between ancient and modern civilization see Z 4171–72 and note.
Z 164
1. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8, 8, 5ff.
Z 165
1. What follows (up to Z 183) is a small treatise written in eleven days, which Leopardi refers to in the Zibaldone as his “Theory of pleasure.”
Z 168
1. That imagination and illusions (Z 51), and therefore the only chance of happiness, are annihilated by reason is a seminal principle that Leopardi shares with Romantic culture, from Wordsworth to Baudelaire (see, e.g., “Le voyage,” 1–4). His sources were however very limited: Alfieri’s Vita (epoch 3, ch. 5), Goethe’s Werther (pp. 50–51, 114), Sterne’s Sentimental Journey (Foscolo’s translation, Viaggio sentimentale, p. 19); perhaps Chateaubriand and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, both cited on Z 53. The idea is beautifully set to verse in “Ad Angelo Mai,” 87–90: “Alas, the world when once known doesn’t expand: / it shrinks; and the echoing heaven / and the gentle earth and sea / seem far vaster to the infant than to the sage” (trans. Galassi). Hence the critique of geographical discoveries on Z 415–16. See also Z 2943.
2. Leopardi reiterates what he has said on Z 51: here he adds that the distinction between dream and reality (cf. Lucretius, De rerum natura 4, 466–68) starts with society, that is, with habituation; which means that the “true” is a human construction.
Z 170
1. Montesquieu here remarks on the soul’s inclination to shun limits and gaze into the distance.
Z 171
1. The initial theme of “L’infinito,” ll. 1–3, where the view is restricted by a “hedgerow.” Here Leopardi refers to a casa passatoia, a dwelling or connecting walkway that was in part open to the elements. The same construction is described in an autobiographical fragment in “Vita abbozzata di Silvio Sarno,” § 104, and may be related to what in medieval and later English is referred to as a “penthouse” or “pentice” (see Oxford English Dictionary); the term is used by Wordsworth in “The Excursion” to describe a structure in the Lake District.
Z 172
1. Drowsiness and drunkenness (see Z 3842, 3906), as well as “occupation,” are forms of “distraction” in a Pascalian sense (see Z 104, 649).
2. See the note above. Cf. Z 649–50, 4043, 4075–76, 4259–60.
Z 173
1. Leopardi comes back to these “little aims” much later, in autobiographical notes on Z 4266–67, 4273–74, and 4518.
Z 174
1. Leopardi here picks up the sequence interrupted by the passage beginning “Notice that nature had intended,” on Z 173.
Z 175
1. According to Lady Morgan, La France, bk. 8, vol. 2, p. 241, note, the Duke of Brancas, upon asking his doctors whether boredom could prove fatal, and being assured that it could, hurried to a female acquaintance of his, and urged her to sue the Prince d’Hénin whose courting of her was proving wearisome.
2. In this early thought Leopardi seems to admit for the first time that the “failings of nature” are not “extraordinary accidents” but part of the “great system of the universe.” But note that “and by many other … universe” is a marginal addition that he might have written at another time: the problem is under discussion, e.g., on Z 365–66, 585–86, and 1530–31. In later thoughts he will speak of “regular and ordinary evils” (cf. Z 4510–11 and see note).
Z 177
1. It is not clear where Leopardi could have read of England’s high suicide rate; certainly not in the entry “Suicide” of his edition of the Encyclopédie, as Damiani maintains. Note that in Mme. de Staël’s Corinne English sadness is opposed to southern happiness. Of the three crimes witnessed by Momus and Prometheus in one of the Operette morali (“La scommessa di Prometeo”), the modern one is that of a father who, in London, kills his two children and then himself. See also Z 484.
Z 181
1. For an explanation of these terms see Z 2380, note 1.
2. How far Leopardi has come from the entry on Z 40 on the “immortality of the soul” can be seen here.
3. Leopardi refers, e.g., to Chateaubriand and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (see Z 53, note 1).
Z 183
1. P. H. Thiry d’Holbach, La morale universelle, ou les devoirs de l’homme fondés sur la nature, Paris 1796, tome 3, “Des devoirs de la vie privée,” pp. 251–52. There was no copy of this work in the LL, yet one might suspect the (probably indirect) influence of Holbach, compared by Christian apologists such as Antonino Valsecchi (read by Leopardi in his childhood) to ancient materialism and to Lucretius in particular (cf. Timpanaro, Classicismo, p. 185 [B11]). A translation (1808) of Le bon sens ou idées naturelles opposées aux idées surnaturelles (1772) was read by Leopardi only in May 1825. See Z 3506 and note, 4486 and note.
Z 185
1. The first thought in which Leopardi clearly singles out the involuntary memory as a source of poetry. Cf. Z 1455, 1733–37.
Z 188
1. Perhaps an allusion to the theme in Staël of the “laugh of despair,” on which see Z 87, note 1, and “Aspasia,” ll. 106–12 (Damiani).
Z 189
1. This expression is used in French (as a subtitle) in the English translation of 1759. We have opted, however, in the following pages, for “a certain something.” See Richard Scholar, The Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi in Early Modern Europe: Encounters with a Certain Something, Oxford 2005.
Z 190
1. A selection from Marianna Candidi Dionigi, Precetti elementari sulla pittura de’ paesi, Rome 1816, appeared in the Spettatore italiano, tome 10, issue 13 (95), 1818, pp. 216–23.
Z 191
1. Genesis 5:17. See “Inno ai Patriarchi,” ll. 43–56.
2. In the passages cited Montesquieu remarks that sentiments generally have more than one cause, that the best writers are therefore skilled in inspiring more than one sentiment at a time, and that persons of refined taste tend to associate a large number of subsidiary ideas or tastes with each idea or taste. The same passage quoted also on Z 178 and 3214.
Z 192
1. Leopardi, “Discorso di un italiano intorno alla poesia romantica,” Prose, pp. 407–10. Leopardi will return to this theme on Z 2645–48, 3771, 4475–77, 4483–84.
2. Montesquieu, Essai sur le goût, “De la sensibilité,” p. 392.
Z 194
1. It is possible that Leopardi has in mind here the encounter between his father, Monaldo, and Pietro Giordani in 1818.
Z 195
1. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. 7, chs. 22–25, in Works, Berwick: John Taylor, 1800 (= LL) tome 3, pp. 39–43, a passage in which an abbess and a novice used French obscenities in a bid to get their mules to move.
Z 197
1. Diogenes Laertius 1, 70.
Z 198
1. Fronto, De bello Parthico, as edited by Mai, in Opera inedita, tome 2, p. 323 (ed. Van den Hout p. 222), recounted the case of Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos, whose extreme wealth provoked the envy of mortals and gods alike. See Z 4478.
2. In this thought Leopardi paraphrases and comments on Montesquieu’s Essai, pp. 394–95.
Z 199
1. Montesquieu, Essai sur le goût, “Du je ne sais quoi,” p. 394.
Z 200
1. In “Roxelane,” one of Marmontel’s Contes moraux, the heroine’s snub nose enchanted Suleyman II. Cf. Z 1322–23, 1576.
2. Vittorio Alfieri, Vita, part 1, epoch 2, chapter 10, vol. 1, p. 69.
3. Carlo Vincenzo Frugoni, “In lode de’ piccioli,” ll. 33–34, in La lirica del Frugoni e de’ bolognesi del secolo XVIII, tome 51 of the collection “Parnaso italiano,” Venice 1791, p. 175.
Z 202
1. Cf. Z 8.
2. Montesquieu, Essai sur le goût, “Du je ne sais quoi,” p. 395.
Z 205
1. The best-known exponent of a theory of climatic determinism was Montesquieu, in De l’esprit des lois, a work to be found in LL. The theory was otherwise familiar to Leopardi through, among other works, Algarotti’s Saggio sopra la quistione se le qualità varie de’ popoli originate siano dallo influsso del clima, ovveramente dalla virtù della legislazione, in Opere, tome 4, pp. 215–40.
2. Cesarotti, Poesie di Ossian tradotte, Bassano 1789 (= LL), tome 1, p. 215, where the translator records Ossian’s supposed view that nature was destined to deteriorate, and, owing to a decline in customs, the valiant were to be succeeded by the cowardly. The poems in Ossian’s name were published between 1760 and 1765 by the Scot James MacPherson, who claimed to have collected and translated them from ancient Gaelic manuscripts.
3. Ibid., tome 1, p. 212.
Z 206
1. Diogenes Laertius 1, 92.
2. Diogenes Laertius 1, 93.
3. Diogenes Laertius 1, 70.
4. In Diogenes Laertius, De vitis, vol. 1, p. 237, note 4, Isaac Casaubon observes, on the authority of Valerius Maximus, that the philosopher Polemo once drew his arm into the sleeve of his toga, to indicate shame and modesty.
Z 207
1. Diogenes Laertius 1, 92, advice in fact attributed to Cleobulus, not Chilon.
Z 208
1. Plutarch, Life of Cicero 3, where it is said that Cicero was lean and thin, hence Leopardi’s “however.” This addition dates from 1825. On the importance of physical exercise among the ancients see Z 76, 115.
2. In his Essai sur les éloges, ch. 9, in Oeuvres, tome 1, pp. 95–96, Thomas concedes that the French, with the sole exception of La Fontaine and Fénelon, lack the “grace” characteristic of Xenophon, Virgil, Horace, Ariosto. The two quotations are on p. 96.
3. Leopardi’s theory of assuefazione, or habituation, was founded upon the sensationalist philosophies of the Lockean and idéologue tradition. The larger claim was ultimately that ideas regarding beauty, goodness, truth, and most things ordinarily judged to be absolute were in fact all relative and acquired by habituation alone. See the lengthy thought on Z 1183–1201 and the quotation from Staël’s De l’Allemagne on Z 2028.
Z 209
1. Diogenes Laertius 2, 16.
2. Influenced by Rousseau’s Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, and by the rejoinder it contains to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Leopardi shows as early as 1820 his interest in the study of primitive societies, elaborated in later thoughts (cf., for example, the “treatise” on Z 3773–810), and anticipates the discussion of “natural law” (see, e.g., Z 1709, 2660, 2672, and note 4).
3. Compassion, as Rousseau had claimed in the Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, was the cardinal principle by which human beings might be defined. See Z 108, note 1.
4. Magalotti, Lettere familiari, part 1, letter 23, pp. 403–404.
Z 210
1. Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 17–18, recounted how young Spartans were trained to steal, but Leopardi might have gleaned this information from Xenophon, Polity of the Lacedaemonians 2, 6–7.
Z 211
1. Virgil, Georgics 4, 511.
2. A reference to arguments directed against Michelangelo by Anton Raphael Mengs and Sir Joshua Reynolds (Pacella).
Z 212
1. Leopardi’s younger brother Pierfrancesco, then seven years old.
2. Lord Nelvil, as described in Staël’s Corinne, bk. 1, ch. 1, tome 1, p. 7, assumed a strict attachment to duty, and a stern renunciation of all worldly pleasures, as a defense against his sorrows.
Z 213
1. Montesquieu, Essai sur le goût, “De la délicatesse,” p. 393, contrasts vulgar people, whose souls do not know “how to compose or decompose,” and who therefore experience but a single sensation, with people of taste, who experience “an infinity of sensations.”
Z 214
1. Staël, in Corinne, bk. 15, ch. 6, tome 3, p. 61, observes that someone who has not suffered knows nothing (see Z 136). Simone Balayé has failed to identify the source of either this saying, attributed by Staël to “a prophet,” or the dictum preceding it.
Z 215
1. Cicero’s claim was that philosophers, even when disparaging glory in their books, hope thereby to obtain it.
Z 216
1. An impressive prophecy about a suicide by mankind (see also Z 223), that has found its way into wider circulation through popular science books such as Jared Diamond’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, London: Radius, 1991. See also Antonino Pennisi and Alessandra Falzone, Il prezzo del linguaggio. Evoluzione ed estinzione nelle scienze cognitive, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2010, which posits language as the instrument leading to the self-destruction of mankind. Leopardi refers to the eighteenth-century research on fossils. He mentions Buffon for the first time on Z 281, October 1820.
Z 217
1. Thomas, Essai sur les éloges, ch. 31, in Oeuvres, tome 2, p. 137.
Z 219
1. Thomas, Es
sai sur les éloges, ch. 31, in Oeuvres, tome 2, p. 133, had likewise charged Bossuet with relying upon commonplaces.
Z 220
1. Voltaire’s famous judgment is clearly quoted secondhand, perhaps from the entry “Bossuet” in the Encyclopédie méthodique. Histoire, tome 1, part 2, p. 607.
2. Cf. also Z 663.
3. That is to say, a Rousseauist “natural pity,” as against a specifically Christian virtue.
Z 222
1. A quotation drawn from Leçons, vol. 1, p. 488, emphasis added by Leopardi.
2. Machiavelli, Discorsi 3, 1; Montesquieu, Considérations, ch. 8, pp. 91–92, on the role of the Roman censors in returning the republic to its earlier, and morally purer, condition. Pietro Giordani, “Sullo stile poetico del Marchese di Montrone” (Bologna 1807), in Opere, tome 8, p. 194, applies Machiavelli’s dictum—about returning things to their beginnings (on which see also Z 358 and note 2)—to the mimetic arts.
Z 223
1. After the first thoughts of Z 56, Leopardi explains suicide as the result of reason, distinguishing ancient and modern suicides: a theme that is given an imaginative form in one of the Operette morali, “La scommessa di Prometeo” (see Z 177 and note). Cf. also Z 216, 484–85, 1978–82, 2402–404, 2549–55, 3784.
2. Leopardi possessed Byron’s Corsair in an Italian translation, Il corsaro, Milan 1820, second edition (he refers here to note 4 to canto 2). Later, in 1823, he read French translations of Beppo, Manfred, and other works; and in 1824 an Italian translation, by Michele Leoni, of Childe Harold (Prose, pp. 1223, 1227).
Z 224
1. Leopardi, “Discorso di un italiano intorno alla poesia romantica” (Prose, pp. 378ff.).
Z 225
1. Aristotle, Poetics 1453a. See Z 662, 1847.
2. A remark drawn from Jean-Siffrein Maury, Essai sur l’éloquence de la chaire (1777), and anthologized in Leçons, tome 1, p. 514 (Pacella).
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