Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  2. The distinction between “savages” and “barbarians” rests upon the fact that the first are scattered across a society that is minimal and loose-knit, and is such as nature intended the human species to have (Damiani). See Z 4185.

  Z 3802

  1. See Z 416 and note.

  Z 3804

  1. Rousseau likewise asked his readers not to confuse “Savage man with the men we have before our eyes” (Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 139).

  Z 3806

  1. Milton, Paradise Lost 8, 383–84. The quotation (in English in the original, and then translated by Leopardi) is indirect and in all probability derives, as Pacella suggests, from Frederick II, tome 11, p. 90 (letter 43 of Voltaire to Frederick).

  Z 3808

  1. Leopardi goes beyond Montaigne’s famous statement that “there is as much difference between me and myself as there is between me and others” (Essais II 1, in Oeuvres, A. Thibaudet and M. Rat, eds., Paris 1962, p. 321).

  Z 3811

  1. Leopardi refers back to his discussion of cannibalism in America, at the page cited.

  Z 3812

  1. The essay by Charles Wilkins reviewed in the Annali (see Z 929, note 1), namely Grammar of the Sanskrita language, records the opinion of Sir William Jones to the effect that the ancient Persians, the ancient Indians, the Greeks, the Goths, the ancient Egyptians or Ethiopians originally all spoke the same language and followed the same religious cult.

  Z 3816

  1. See Z 1410.

  Z 3817

  1. All expressions using versions of s’en falloir (to fall short of) with the addition of different degrees by which one falls short. They were added, together with the example from Speroni, in the ms. margin, unattached.

  Z 3818

  1. Leopardi refers here to his earlier assertion, on Z 3573, to the effect that French is the Romance language that is “most remote” from Latin, whereas Spanish is “the closest to it extrinsically,” just as Italian is “intrinsically.”

  Z 3819

  1. See Z 3078, note.

  2. For example, Scipione Maffei, Dell’istoria di Verona, in Opere, Venice 1790, tome 5, p. 265.

  3. The whole of this parenthesis, with the exception of the first sentence, is a marginal addition stretching over the left-hand margin of three successive ms. pages, Z 3819–21.

  Z 3823

  1. The implied continuation of this truncated sentence is: “it wouldn’t make any difference.”

  Z 3824

  1. See Z 1569 and note.

  2. See Z 2269.

  Z 3825

  1. Solís described the spectacular displays mounted by Mexican jugglers in city squares or in the forecourts of temples. See Historia de la conquista de Mexico, bk. 3, ch. 15, and bk. 5, ch. 1.

  Z 3829

  1. Plautus, Captivi 604.

  Z 3832

  1. Priscian, Institutio de arte grammatica 10, 19 (cited by Forcellini), in Grammatici latini, vol. 2, p. 511.

  Z 3833

  1. The relevant works consulted by Leopardi on this topic are listed on Z 3797, note 2. Algarotti tended to regard the Incas as the equivalents of the Romans in the Americas, ascribing their success to their military discipline (Saggio sopra l’imperio degl’Incas, in Opere, tome 4, pp. 162, 164, 168–69, 174).

  2. Leopardi may here have in mind the passages from Solís cited on Z 3643.

  Z 3835

  1. Leopardi may have taken Frederick II’s expression “sommeil léthargique” from the “Épître à ma soeur de Bronswic,” in Oeuvres complettes, tome 5, p. 210 (Pacella).

  Z 3838

  1. The two following long passages from “and among other things” to “content, etc.,” and from “all his youth” to “old people” are marginal additions.

  Z 3841

  1. See Leopardi, “Il passero solitario,” ll. 58–59.

  Z 3842

  1. Creuzer, at the page cited, refers to Euripides, on the basis of a line transmitted by Plutarch, Moralia 103c.

  Z 3843

  1. Priscian, Institutio de arte grammatica 9, 34 (cited by Forcellini), in Grammatici latini, vol. 2, p. 470.

  Z 3845

  1. See Forcellini under assulitare and Festus, De verborum significatione, p. CCCLVI.

  Z 3846

  1. See Rousseau, Émile (in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 503). Leopardi did not have the text to hand, but this passage was anthologized in his edition of Pensées, vol. 2, p. 154 (Pacella).

  Z 3848

  1. Buffon, Histoire naturelle, tome 2, ch. 1, “Comparaison des animaux et des végétaux,” p. 16 (LL = Storia naturale, tome 3, p. 10) states that the polyp is the least perfect and sensitive of the animals.

  2. See Z 3201 and note 2.

  3. See Z 281–82, 290–91 and notes.

  Z 3852

  1. Fronto, De feriis Alsiensibus 3, 2 (ed. Van den Hout), in Opera inedita, ed. Mai, vol. 1, p. 179 (Leopardi, Opere inedite, vol. 1, p. 415).

  Z 3855

  1. See Z 3068.

  Z 3860

  1. On the modern “placidity of despotism” see Z 985–86 and note.

  2. A reference to the principle formulated by Leibniz, among others; see Z 1658.

  Z 3861

  1. That is, the Catholic calendar.

  Z 3864

  1. See Z 2052.

  Z 3865

  1. See Z 3349 and note.

  Z 3866

  1. See Staël, De l’Allemagne, part 1, ch. 12.

  Z 3872

  1. Leopardi writes “affetto,” probably with the meaning of “effetto” (Pacella).

  Z 3876

  1. Cf. Z 4498 and note.

  Z 3878

  1. Virgil, Aeneid 6, 419–21. The “sop” thrown by the Sibyl to Cerberus is “sleep-inducing” and composed “of honey and drugged flour.”

  Z 3881

  1. Aristotle, Politics 1322b, 26–30.

  2. Onomatopoeic word used by children asking for a drink.

  Z 3882

  1. Confirming what he had suggested (in contrast with many other thoughts) on Z 3197–98 (see note) and 3345–47, Leopardi acknowledges here that talents are “innate” and independent of habituation and exercise.

  Z 3883

  1. The reader is reminded here of Montaigne’s essay Des cannibales; whether (and when) Leopardi read his Essais is difficult to say (cf. Z 2296, note).

  2. See Z 485 and note.

  Z 3886

  1. Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris 1, 18.

  Z 3887

  1. In the letter cited Bernardo Tasso urges Count Claudio Ringone to remain in the employ of the Republic of Venice, the true heir to republican Rome, and not transfer his allegiance to a monarch.

  Z 3889

  1. The completion of the sentence would probably have been “of the eighteenth century,” that is, until the French Revolution.

  Z 3890

  1. Aristotle, Politics 1329b, 25–35, modified by Leopardi. The last sentence in Latin is part of the translation by Vettori.

  Z 3891

  1. This thought is shaped by Leopardi’s experience of leaving the Marche for the first time in November 1822 for his seven-month stay in Rome. See Z 2645, note 2, and 2686, note 3.

  Z 3893

  1. On the influence of climate on character see Z 75 and note.

  2. See Z 2465.

  3. Aristotle, Politics, 1330b, 35–1331a, 2 (Vettori comments on Aristotle’s response to Plato, Laws 778d ff., where he had observed that the decision to build no walls around a city, so as to defend it by courage alone, was tantamount to inviting an invasion).

  4. It is in fact Plutarch, Moralia 219a: “When he saw the missile shot by a catapult … he exclaimed: ‘Great Heavens! Man’s valor is no more!’” (Pacella).

  5. Ariosto, Orlando furioso 9, 28–29.

  6. Solís, Historia, bk. 3, ch. 2, p. 178, col. 2; Cieça, Parte primera, ch. 58, p. 158v.

  Z 3894

  1. All the letters quoted are in tome 13
. Frederick II observes, e.g., in letter 49, p. 125: “You will find no people whose religion has not been a mixture of absurd fables and a morality necessary to maintain society.”

  Z 3895

  1. Niebuhr, Conspectus, p. 350.

  Z 3896

  1. Vettori comments on Politics 1336a, 12–13 and notes the presence of various words deriving from old Greek in the common language.

  2. Leopardi has in mind here Frederick II’s paradox (referred to on Z 3894): “these animals which Schoolmen have deigned to describe as reasoning, in fact have very little reason” (letter 45, tome 13, p. 117), which alludes to Aristotle’s definition of man as “a logical animal” (see Z 309 and note).

  Z 3899

  1. The source is probably a line from Voltaire’s free adaptation of a passage by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, A Satire against Mankind (“L’homme est né pour agir, et tu prétends penser,” Voltaire, Oeuvres, ed. Beuchot, tome 13, Paris 1833, p. 401). A slightly different version is in Frederick’s 5th epistle to the Marquis d’Argens: “L’homme est fait pour agir, non pour philosopher” (Oeuvres du philosophe de Saint-Souci, Donjon le Chateau 1750, tome 2, p. 81).

  Z 3901

  1. Aristotle, Politics 1332b, 19; 1337b, 2; 1340a, 41.

  Z 3902

  1. Petrarch, Rime 22, 38–39.

  Z 3904

  1. Orlando Innamorato as reworked in Tuscan by Francesco Berni (Pacella).

  Z 3906

  1. Leopardi’s note is an unattached marginal ms. addition.

  2. Vettori comments on Aristotle, Politics 1342b, 23–29, explaining that Socrates for educative purposes did not allow relaxed melodies, because they induce a kind of drowsiness in the soul.

  3. Leopardi had originally written “father,” not “mother.”

  Z 3907

  1. Aristotle, Politics 1324b, 37–38; 1329b, 3; 1330a, 18–19.

  Z 3909

  1. Leopardi’s account of the growing infatuation of a lover with the love object reminds the reader of Stendhal’s account of “crystallization” in De l’amour (1822).

  Z 3911

  1. From the Latin “ens rationis,” that is, for Kant: “a concept without an object.”

  Z 3913

  1. Note that normally Leopardi attributes to the word mystical a negative value (Z 105–106, 336, 4221), yet it becomes here the core of his poetics of the indefinito, or vago (see Z 3913 and note). The same happens with the word romantic (cf. Z 4415, note 3).

  2. In his Génie du Christianisme, part 2, bk. 3, ch. 9, tome 2, p. 165, Chateaubriand had observed that “The more peoples advance in civilization, the more that state of the vagueness of passions increases” (Damiani). Leopardi, who knew the Génie well, might here be under the influence of his reading of René, undertaken at the beginning of the year (Z 2739 and note), as the following pages confirm.

  Z 3916

  1. The example proposed—Damiani observes—seems to be just the reverse of the circumstance described in Chateaubriand’s René, where René and his sister Amélie passionately love each other. See the notes above and below.

  Z 3918

  1. It would seem that anxiety at tackling the theme of incest has caused Leopardi’s syntax to falter. Another sign of embarrassment is also, in the following paragraph, the repetition of “not because they are consanguineous.” In René Chateaubriand had been more open in addressing this same theme, which presumably troubled Leopardi, as it did the Victorians (see A. Kuper, Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P., 2009).

  Z 3920

  1. See Rousseau, Confessions, bk. 8 (in Oeuvres, vol. 1, pp. 356–59).

  2. The note is an unattached ms. marginal addition. The passages cited from chs. 12, 16, and 19 of Cieça’s Parte primera concern the cannibalism practiced by the Indians.

  3. Aristotle, Politics 1335b, 20–1336a, 2. Leopardi misreads this passage, which in fact speaks against exposing unwanted children.

  4. Aristotle, Politics 1335b, 25, accepts abortion but only before the point at which a fetus has sensation and life.

  5. Leopardi owned the fourth edition, dated 1550, in fact from around 1640, and probably published in Geneva (see A. Gerber, Niccolo Machiavelli: die Handschriften, Ausgaben und Übersetzungen seiner Werke im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Gotha: Druck von F. A. Perthes, 1912–13, II, pp. 92–104).

  Z 3924

  1. Cf. Z 3936: “Nature is not life, but existence.” For the distinction between “life” and “existence” see Z 2380, note 1. Leopardi will consider “matter” from a totally different perspective on Z 4251–52.

  2. See Z 56, note 2; 2899–900, 3846–48.

  Z 3928

  1. That is, the formation of verbal adjectives.

  Z 3930

  1. As Damiani notes, for Leopardi the bellum omnium contra omnes (the war of all against all) does not take place, as in Hobbes, in the state of nature, but in close-knit society.

  Z 3931

  1. On this beautiful expression, in relation to a passage by Schiller, see F. D’Intino, “I misteri di Silvia. Motivo persefoneo e mistica eleusina in Leopardi,” Filologia e critica 19 (1994), pp. 267–70. The “almost organic” action of this kind of reflection resembles that of the power of imagination as described by Coleridge in ch. 14 of his Biographia Literaria (vol. 2, p. 16): “This power, first put in action by the will and understanding, and retained under their irremissive, though gentle and unnoticed, controul … reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities…”

  Z 3932

  1. See Cieça, loc. cit. Leopardi corrects “ha muchos” into “ay muchos.” The emphasis by Leopardi stresses the fact, asserted on Z 1459, that: “The less civilized men are (as the savages are, as the Americans, etc., were), the greater the number and variety of languages or dialects to be found in a smaller stretch of country…” See also Z 1386–87.

  2. Although Leopardi does not stress here the role of religion, this perceptive analysis of the “wretched spiritualization of human affairs” (Z 1006) depends on an early thought on the negative effect of Christianity on human morality (Z 80–81 and 710–11).

  Z 3935

  1. A thought from early 1819 (Z 56, see note) features this same quotation from Rousseau.

  Z 3936

  1. “Civilized man” understood.

  Z 3937

  1. That is, Virginia Mosca, whose death had already been noted two years before, on Z 2192.

  Z 3938

  1. Leopardi refers to the Annotations appended to the Bologna edition of his Canzoni (1824), where he explains that “ferrata” (l. 31) signifies “ferrea” (“of iron”).

  Z 3939

  1. In modern editions 1, 46.

  2. As Pacella has pointed out, in these other passages Leopardi in fact refers not to the supine but to participles.

  Z 3941

  1. In the review cited on Z 929, p. 51, it is stated that the perfect in Sanskrit is formed by doubling the root as in Latin.

  Z 3942

  1. Here Leopardi reverses the process by which “invention” and “originality” are in fact “imitation” (Z 1697–98 and 2184–86). Cf. Z 4372–73. A panoramic view of this problem, in particular in English and German authors, is in M. H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition, New York: Oxford U.P., 1953.

  2. That is, the young, healthy, and well-to-do people described on Z 3275.

  Z 3943

  1. The last definition is an interlinear addition, whereas the note contains a marginal addition placed at this point. Goldoni’s Le bourru bienfaisant [The Charitable Curmudgeon], later turned into Italian, was first staged in 1771. Leopardi did not own any plays by this author, though he did have his memoirs.

  Z 3945

  1. See Z 3200 and note.

  2. Rucellai (Bologna 1746), p. 176, writes in fact “nipholo.”

  Z 3949

  1. See Frederick II, Oeuvres complettes, tome 13, p.
276: “England and Italy are languishing; a Hume, a Metastasio cannot be compared with either Lord Bolingbroke or even Ariosto.”

  2. Francesco Algarotti was received with favor at the Prussian court, his friendship with Frederick II earning him the office of Chamberlain and many other honors.

  Z 3950

  1. On children’s imagination see Z 499–501, 2390.

  Z 3955

  1. Frederick II, Oeuvres complettes, tome 13, p. 277. See Z 2680–81, 3530, 4002.

  Z 3956

  1. Note that Leopardi had probably read in his childhood the meditation by Pascal on “L’extrême grandeur, et la dernière petitesse de la nature” [“the extreme greatness, and the last smallness of nature”] in Leçons, tome 1, pp. 298–99 (Pascal, Pensées, ch. 22, pp. 115–17, i.e., § 72 ed. Brunschvicg).

  Z 3957

  1. It is worth noting that it was in the years 1821–23 that Alessandro Manzoni was recasting Italian notions of what a novel should be by bringing to the fore in Fermo (afterward Renzo) and Lucia, the humblest of protagonists.

  2. In the note is an unattached marginal ms. addition. In his Saggio sopra l’imperio degl’ Incas Algarotti commented both on the lack of an alphabet (loc. cit. below), and on the admirable civilization of the Incas, which is discussed in the following paragraph.

  Z 3958

  1. On both types of writing in pre-Colombian civilizations, see Carlo Severi, Il percorso e la voce. Un’antropologia della memoria, Turin: Einaudi, 2004.

  Z 3960

  1. See Z 2241 and note.

  Z 3961

  1. Hippocrates, De aere, aquis et locis [On Air, Water and Places] 16a. The correct date of Mercuriale’s edition is given on Z 4002. On this treatise see Z 3990.

  Z 3962

  1. The following two references are unattached marginal ms. additions.

  Z 3963

  1. In the note is an unattached ms. addition which runs along the full length of the margin.

  Z 3964

  1. The Persika of Ctesias was written in the Ionic dialect.

  Z 3965