Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Z 3229

  1. On the separation of music from poetry see Barthélemy, Viaggio d’Anacarsi, ch. 27, tome 4, p. 237. The note on pp. 268–69 of this work reproduces a passage from Giuseppe Tartini, Trattato di musica, Padua 1754, pp. 142–43, about the degradation of modern music.

  Z 3231

  1. Leopardi regretted his failure to make better use of the music on offer in Recanati, where his father at this date was engaged in founding a new theater. Nonetheless in his sketches for an autobiographical novel music plays a crucial role, in relation to poetry: “effects on me of music heard in the garden, an aria sung from some opera … beginning of the world (which I would have wanted to put to music since poetry cannot express these things, etc. etc.) imagined as I heard that bricklayer’s song while I was writing, etc.” (“Vita abbozzata di Silvio Sarno,” §§ 12–15).

  2. There follows a marginal addition, which extends across a whole paragraph.

  Z 3235

  1. Plato, Sophist 267d. Ast’s conjecture is accepted by Leopardi in his philological notes on the Sophist, see Scritti filologici, p. 527. After τις Leopardi also omitted αὐτῶν. The Latin version of this passage is from Ast.

  Z 3236

  1. In the note is a marginal addition with a reference to a lexicon of Platonic words by Timaeus the Sophist, about whom almost nothing is known. In his preface Timaeus states that he had chosen expressions that would prove obscure not only to Romans but also to the Greeks themselves (Lexicon vocum Platonicarum, Leiden 1789, pp. 1–3). Read by Leopardi in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, bk. 5, ch. 38, “De Photio,” vol. 9, p. 419.

  Z 3238

  1. For criticism of “analysis” see Z 1833ff., 1852ff. Cf., however, Z 2950 and note.

  Z 3245

  1. See Z 1852 and note 2.

  2. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. 2, p. 5, § 2, cites Diogenes Laertius 3, 37 on Plato: “Aristotle remarks [fr. 73 Rose] that the style of the dialogues is halfway between poetry and prose.”

  3. Descartes’s name has been added in the ms. margin. In the operetta morale “Il Parini, ovvero della gloria,” ch. 7 (Prose, p. 101), a similar list includes Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, and Vico.

  4. The death of Pius VII, and the consequent dismissal of Cardinal Consalvi from the office of secretary of state, were to dash any hopes that Leopardi might have had of obtaining a post in the Roman Curia. The new pope was elected on 28 September 1823 (see Z 3568 and note).

  Z 3247

  1. This idea is part of the theory, derived from classical Antiquity, regarding the influence of climate upon the character of peoples (cf. Z 75 and note). See for example Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues, ch. 8 (in Oeuvres, vol. 5, p. 394). Cf. also Staël, De l’Allemagne, part 2, ch. 9 (“the air which we breathe has a great influence on the sounds which we articulate”), a chapter quoted on Z 3250.

  Z 3250

  1. See De l’Allemagne, part 2, ch. 9.

  Z 3252

  1. Algarotti, in his essay on climate (in Opere, tome 4, p. 222; see Z 205, note 1), cites the thesis of Abbé Du Bos, according to which the great difference between ancient and modern Rome depends in general on the climatic “shift” that had occurred (Damiani).

  2. The reference to Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, art. “Langues,” tome 5, p. 105 (Opere scelte, tome 3, pp. 139–40), was added in the ms. margin, as well as the clarifications (in the two parentheses) below.

  Z 3253

  1. On the project of a universal language, discussed in this and in the following thought, see Z 937, 1028, 4108.

  Z 3254

  1. The “geometricization” of language is one of the recurring themes of the Zibaldone since Z 48, 110–11, 243, 323–24. For more general implications, see Z 160 (and note 2), 415.

  Z 3255

  1. In Locke, Saggio filosofico, tome 2, p. 63. In such a language, Soave suggests, every idea should correspond to one character, either an algebraic sign, or a sort of Chinese ideogram. In the case of Chinese, Soave continues, one should for practical purposes reduce the number of characters and use mnemonic devices to make them easier to learn. Cf. Z 1055.

  Z 3262

  1. Leopardi rejects “the dream of founding a universal language” (Z 1028) as an impossible metaphysical project, which disregards the inevitable differences of time and space inherent in the human condition. See Rigoni (1997), pp. 203–15 (B11).

  Z 3263

  1. See Z 502, note 3.

  2. That is, ablative.

  Z 3264

  1. See Burman’s comment on “Tanto iniquit melior” (3, 5, 3).

  Z 3265

  1. For this idea of time, Paola Cori (“‘Di temenza è sciolto.’ Pensiero e poesia della soglia,” RISL 7, 2011, p. 61 [B6]) has recalled Saint Augustine, The City of God, 13, 11 (see also Confessions, 11, 11.13).

  Z 3269

  1. See Z 2496 and note.

  2. See Z 1852 and note 2.

  Z 3275

  1. The passage from “inclined and accustomed” is added in the ms. margin.

  Z 3276

  1. Homer, Iliad 6, 235–36. Diomedes is called Tydides, i.e., the son of Tydeus.

  Z 3282

  1. Suetonius, De vita Caesarum [Lives of the Caesars] 1, 72–75.

  Z 3285

  1. These include the Compendiaria (see Z 2780, note) and Weller’s Grammatica, but also various treatises from late Antiquity on the Greek dialects, extracts from which may be found in the appendices of Tusanus (see, e.g., Z 2920) and Scapula.

  Z 3287

  1. The last two verbs are conjectures, meaning “to die” and “to be, to stand.”

  Z 3291

  1. An analogous distinction was made by Rousseau in a note to the Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité (in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 219, note XV), but he understood by “amour-propre” what Leopardi calls egoism and, conversely, by “amour de soi-même” what is here called self-love, that is amor proprio (Damiani). See Z 873, note.

  Z 3292

  1. The following sentence is an unattached ms. addition.

  Z 3295

  1. The following long sentence is an unattached ms. addition.

  Z 3296

  1. The following passage (with its references) is a numbered marginal ms. addition.

  Z 3298

  1. The following sentence is a numbered marginal ms. addition.

  2. Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars 1, 16, 2.

  Z 3299

  1. On Z 2009–11, 2019, 2145–46 Leopardi did not refer specifically to casus but rather to “verbal nouns” which in his view were derived from participles in us.

  Z 3304

  1. On the “Californians” cf. Z 3180 and note. These pages on the introduction of clothes are a prelude to the thought on the spiritualization of love in civilized societies on Z 3909ff.

  2. For Rousseau the sexuality of primitive peoples obeyed “tranquilly” the impulses of nature, and “Imagination, which causes so much devastation for us, speaks not at all to Savage hearts” (Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 158) (Damiani).

  Z 3308

  1. See Z 3913 and note.

  Z 3311

  1. Writing this, Leopardi had perhaps in mind the chorus in ancient drama, the effect of which was to “drag the spectator into gladness and laughter” (Z 2809, a passage that he might have added at about this time). The moral effect produced by music in modern times is totally different, “of an inner kind,” and melancholic. Leopardi was certainly influenced in this view by Mme. de Staël’s Corinne, but he was quite probably also echoing the process of Italian opera’s gradual detachment from comic opera, which effectively ended the latter’s long history in the 1830s. Yet it was in contemporary comic opera choruses that Leopardi saw some trace remaining of the role of the ancient chorus: see Z 2905–906.

  Z 3312

  1. Compare, however, Z 3875, where Leopardi rightly rejects this conjecture.

  Z 3313

  1. See Mar
tini, Storia della musica, vol. 1, p. 190 (= LL).

  Z 3336

  1. The reference is an unattached addition in the ms. margin. Peretto (that is, Pietro Pomponazzi) maintains that concepts are independent from words and therefore can be translated, whereas Janos Lascaris’s humanistic thesis is that concepts are embodied by the words that express them (see Speroni, Dialoghi, loc. cit.). It is clear that the dialogue represents the theoretical background to the whole of Leopardi’s linguistic discussion, which, three centuries after Speroni, tackles the still unresolved dilemma of modernization.

  Z 3340

  1. The second part of this parenthesis (from “for he also” to the end) and the following parenthesis are added in the ms. margin.

  2. Sic, i.e., “Louis quatorze,” Louis XIV.

  Z 3341

  1. One of the touchstones of Leopardi’s thought, see, e.g., Z 601–606, 3503, 4181–82.

  2. The following two sentences, as well as the clarification above (from “Note” to “instigare”) are numbered additions in the ms. margin.

  Z 3343

  1. The whole paragraph is an unattached addition in the ms. margin. The references are to Lucian, De sacrificiis 1 (see Z 4021) and to Aristotle, Politics 1285a, 41.

  Z 3344

  1. The soldiers’ “carmina” allude jokingly to Caesar’s homosexual leanings, and in particular to his relationship with Nicomedes of Bithynia.

  Z 3347

  1. See Z 3197–98 and note, 3881–82.

  2. The preceding long passage, beginning with “In the cold weather,” is a marginal unattached addition. It is likely to belong here.

  Z 3348

  1. Cf. Staël, De l’Allemagne, part 1, ch. 20.

  Z 3349

  1. The Moravian Brethren owe their origin to the Hussite Unitas Fratrum of 1457, subsequently revived by Count Zinzendorf in 1722. These small Protestant communities, numbering perhaps seventy thousand persons in the mid–nineteenth century, are described by Madame de Staël in De l’Allemagne, part 4, ch. 8.

  2. The duchy of Saxony, which included the flourishing city of Dresden, had been lauded in De l’Allemagne, part 1, ch. 14, for its liberties and its patronage of the arts and sciences.

  Z 3350

  1. Leopardi probably had in mind here a passage (letter 31 of 1737, in Frederick II, Oeuvres, tome 10, pp. 139–40), where Voltaire agrees with Locke that all knowledge is acquired, but asserts the existence of certain universal moral principles (Pacella). See also Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, art. “Juste,” tome 5, pp. 77–80. Leopardi later quotes another passage from the same letter on Z 3365–66.

  2. In Italian sedia means chair, throne, or seat, and is no longer to be found in Latin, as Leopardi goes on to explain, though one may presume (as Leopardi does) that, to judge by surviving compounds, it did once exist.

  Z 3352

  1. This etymology is defended by Forcellini.

  Z 3353

  1. In this passage Xenophon cites Iliad 17, 325.

  Z 3354

  1. Scapula, Lexicon, pp. 1018 and 1042, which cites Iliad 3, 276 (but the selfsame formula may be found at 3, 320, at 7, 202, and at 24, 308).

  Z 3359

  1. Cicero, De re publica 2, 29, 51.

  Z 3366

  1. This anecdote, from the same letter alluded to on Z 3349–50 (see note), is recounted by Voltaire many times (cf. Dictionnaire philosophique, art. “Anthropophages,” tome 1, pp. 389–90). Leopardi, who on Z 3349–50 rejected Voltaire’s idea of universal moral codes, selects here an anecdote that proves that certain values are spontaneously agreed on only within the same group or nation.

  Z 3373

  1. These bibliographical references (in modern eds. Florus 1, 33, 5) were added in the margin at a later stage.

  Z 3374

  1. Leopardi probably here refers to the turgid and hyperbolic style of Seneca the Elder and of Lucan, both from Cordoba.

  Z 3382

  1. Cf. Weller, Grammatica Graeca nova, p. 75.

  Z 3384

  1. Petrarch, Rime 7, l. 10. The reference is added in the margin.

  Z 3388

  1. The references, unattached marginal additions, are to Virgil’s “imagination” and “invention.”

  Z 3389

  1. On Z 1694 Leopardi had on the other hand stressed the priority of the “effect of style” over that of thoughts. See also Z 2797–98.

  2. Leopardi still intended at this date to pursue his project, first delineated in 1821, of composing a “Trattato delle cinque lingue meridionali” [“Treatise on the five southern languages”]: cf. Z 1475 and note.

  Z 3390

  1. In the oration “In morte del Card. Pietro Bembo” Speroni observes that “a good part of Italy,” having been subjugated by the Spanish, has learned their language and deigns to use it. Caro, in his letter of 1562 to Alfonso Cambi Importuni, who had asked him whether it was appropriate to answer in Spanish someone who had written to him in that language, indicated that a person who remained loyal to his own language would be acting “with more decorum, with less suspicion of adulation, and less danger of giving the impression of servitude” (loc. cit., p. 290).

  Z 3398

  1. That is, the “purists.” Cf. Z 1, note 6, and 1899.

  Z 3401

  1. In the “Observations générales” at the beginning of De l’Allemagne, Staël said of the Slav peoples (“les Esclavons”) that “What is European in them is French.”

  Z 3405

  1. From “Much less” to here is a numbered marginal addition in the ms.

  Z 3408

  1. The following sentence is a marginal unattached addition.

  Z 3411

  1. See Z 4254–55.

  2. That is, Aristotle, Politics 1252a ff.

  Z 3415

  1. That is, Caro’s translation of the Aeneid.

  Z 3416

  1. Didactic poems by Luigi Alamanni and Giovanni Rucellai respectively.

  Z 3419

  1. See Z 2519.

  Z 3420

  1. Aristotle, Politics, 1252b, 6–9; 1255a, 21255b, 4; 1285a, 16–19. Plutarch, On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander (Moralia, 329b): “For Alexander did not follow Aristotle’s advice … to have regard for the Greeks as for friends and kindred, but to conduct himself toward other people as though they were plants or animals.”

  2. This annotation after the date is an addition from 1827. W. Robertson (The History of America, bk. 3, London 1817, vol. 1, p. 252) writes that the Spanish “conceived the Americans to be animals of an inferior nature, who were not entitled to the rights and privileges of men … They considered them not as men fighting in defense of their liberty, but as slaves who had revolted against their masters” (LL = Storia di America, tome 2, p. 6) (Pacella).

  Z 3421

  1. On this passage in Fabricius see Z 3245 and note 2.

  2. Cicero, Orator 19, 62, as cited by Fabricius.

  Z 3422

  1. Cf. note 2 to Z 1871.

  Z 3423

  1. Angelica Catalani, a virtuoso, originally from the Marche, who debuted in Venice in 1795 and settled in Florence in 1830, after her retirement two years earlier. She died of cholera in Paris, in 1849.

  Z 3425

  1. See Z 3224 and note 2. The legend of the “famous Flute Player,” Timotheus, who fired Alexander the Great “with warlike ardor,” and then calmed and “pacified him with a change of sound,” is retold in G. Martini, Storia della musica, vol. 1, p. 283 (= LL).

  Z 3427

  1. The reference to Canova is added in the margin. During his Roman stay (November 1822–April 1823) Leopardi had the opportunity to admire Canova’s works, but did not have the chance to meet the most famous of all neoclassical sculptors, who had died in October. See the letter of 1 February 1823 to Giordani, in Epistolario, p. 643.

  Z 3430

  1. Petrarch, Rime 47, l. 8.

  2. The reference in the note is an unattached marginal addition which may be dated to the end o
f October or beginning of November 1823, when Leopardi began to read this work. For this thought (and its follow-up on Z 3435–40) one might refer back to Z 471–72.

  Z 3431

  1. Cf., e.g., Homer, Odyssey 11, 57–80; Virgil, Aeneid 6, 325–30. See, on this topic, E. Rohde, Psyche. The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks (first German ed. 1890–1894), part 1, ch. 5, § 2.

  Z 3432

  1. Horace, Ars poetica 391–401, a passage that has a Vichian flavor, and was in fact explained by Vico in his commentary (1730) on the Ars poetica (Opere, ed. F. Nicolini, vol. 7, Bari: Laterza, 1940, pp. 75–76), and alluded to already in 1707 in an important passage of his sixth Oration (ibid., vol. 1, Bari: Laterza, 1914, pp. 60–61). Cf. Z 471–72 and note.

  2. In Du contrat social, bk. 4, ch. 8, Rousseau observes that every ancient state, “since it had its own religion as well as its own Government, made no distinction at all between its Gods and its laws” (in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 460). See also Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois, bk. 24, ch. 8.

  Z 3435

  1. Cf. the passage from Cicero, De senectute 23 cited on Z 826, then paraphrased and discussed on Z 3027–29. In the following pages, up to Z 3440, Leopardi continues a line of thought started earlier on the same day (Z 3430–32).

  Z 3439

  1. Leopardi refers here to the Flaminian obelisk, the oldest in Rome after the Lateran one.

  2. See Algarotti, Pensieri diversi, in Opere, tome 8, p. 7.

  3. Letter dated 12 August 1739: “In Paris they only talk of festivals, of fireworks; a great deal is spent on gunpowder and rockets … The Romans, our masters, understood this much better than we do: amphitheaters, triumphal arches, erected for a solemn day, still give us pleasure and instruction.” This reference is a marginal addition.

  4. The polemic on the transient nature of modern books recurs on Z 4268–69 and 4271–72, and is also employed by Tristano in the last of the Operette morali.

  Z 3440

  1. Demosthenes, “Against Evergus and Mnesibulus for false testimony” (47, 52ff.). In the case in question fifty sheep were involved.

  Z 3441

  1. See Z 31 and note 1.

  Z 3443

  1. Petrarch, Rime 126, ll. 53–55.

  2. Leopardi read the celebrated Sappho fragment in Toup’s edition of Longinus, pp. 42–43, where it is rendered in Latin as “et rides amabiliter: quae res cor in pectoribus tremere fecit.” Modern editors have established a slightly different text for these lines of fragment 31 (Voigt = 2 Page).