Z 4136
1. On egoism in the primitive state see Z 872–73 and note, and see also Z 209, 1709, 2672 on the “natural law.”
2. On “returned” barbarism cf. Z 314 and note 1. See also Z 4185.
3. See Z 2866.
Z 4137
1. From the Latin “ens rationis,” that is, for Kant: “a concept without an object.”
2. See W. Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, London 1774, bk. 10, vol. 4, p. 54. Leopardi quotes from the Italian translation La storia del regno dell’Imperatore Carlo Quinto, Cologne [in fact Venice] 1788 (= LL).
Z 4139
1. Cf. Leopardi’s letter of 4 March 1826 to Vieusseux, in which he turns down the invitation of Antologia to write about local customs and institutions in the guise of a “hermit of the Apennines.” Note that to describe himself Leopardi uses the English term “absent”: “My life … has always been, and is and will be perpetually solitary, even in the midst of conversation, in which, to use an English expression, I am more absent than a blind man or a deaf man would be” (Epistolario, pp. 1096–97).
2. Josephus, De vita sua 305 and 381; Contra Apionem 2, 265. See also Z 4085.
3. Josephus, De vita sua 401.
4. Pseudo-Josephus, De Maccabaeis 9 and 23. See Z 2866.
5. Isocrates, Panegyricus 160, in Orationes, loc. cit.
Z 4140
1. This aphorism is recast in Pensieri 56. It reflects Leopardi’s frame of mind in Milan, where he had arrived on 30 July 1825 after reluctantly quitting Bologna (Damiani).
2. Petrarch, Rime 42, 1l. 13 and 73, l. 69.
3. Petrarch, Rime 13, l. 14; 22, l. 38 (already noted on Z 3902); 37, l. 82; 70, l. 39, in all of which lines we find “andare” used to mean “essere.”
4. Petrarch, Rime 8, l. 7.
5. There is no trace of Leopardi having commented upon this feature elsewhere. See Petrarch, Rime 49, l. 11.
6. Leopardi here cites Eupolis, a famous Athenian writer of Old Comedy, from Stobaeus, Sententiae, using an edition available to him in Milan but not in Recanati.
7. Thucydides 2, 89, 11 (as cited by Stobaeus, ed. Zurich 1543, p. 68); Plato, Republic 436b, 440c, 503b, 503c. These last references are a ms. marginal addition from 1827. See Z 2919–22, 4034.
8. In these texts by Machiavelli, copied down in Milan on 22 September, Leopardi is collecting examples where “altro” is redundant. Cf. Z 4014 and 4018. He left Milan for Bologna on 26 September, proceeding in stages by way of Piacenza, Parma, Modena, and Castelfranco.
Z 4141
1. That is, a period of five years.
Z 4143
1. In order to understand this thought it would be useful to look at Z 1637–45, 1907–908.
2. That is, 1, 5. Leopardi translated this work during his stay in Bologna, between November and December 1825.
3. That is, 24, 2.
4. See Z 44, note 4.
5. Epictetus, Encheiridion 33, 13 and 32, 3. The same text is also cited on Z 4157.
Z 4144
1. That is, Marcus Aurelius, Ad se ipsum 6, 32.
2. Leopardi used the Oxford 1804 Epictetus edited by Joseph Simpson.
3. Pougens, Archéologie, pp. 233–34.
4. Thomas, Oeuvres, vol. 4, pp. 344–45.
5. Epictetus, Encheiridion 40. See Z 4246–47 for some further comment on this same passage.
6. These references are due to Joseph Simpson, the editor of the Epictetus edition used by Leopardi.
Z 4145
1. Lucian, Adversus indoctum [The Ignorant Book-Collector] 13 (in Opera, tome 2, p. 386) recounts how someone purchased the lantern of Epictetus for three thousand drachmas, in the hope that by means of its light he might obtain the wisdom of the philosopher.
2. Theophrastus describes “The man of petty ambition” who “goes to the trouble of acquiring an Ethiopian attendant.” There follows a ms. addition until the reference to Xenophon.
3. E. Q. Visconti, Il Museo Pio Clementino illustrato e descritto, Milan 1819, pp. 153–55.
4. See Scritti filologici, p. 557.
5. Theophrastus, Characters 5, 9, where “the obsequious man” is said to be “prone to keep a pet ape.”
6. Epictetus, Encheiridion 18. The diminutives deployed by Epictetus have a pejorative effect, as Simpson had observed in the notes transcribed by Leopardi on Z 4144.
7. Leopardi rephrases Descartes’s “cogito ergo sum.” See Z 169, 183.
Z 4146
1. See Z 1546–48, 1551–52, 4165 and note 7, 4250.
2. Of Theophrastus’s Characters Leopardi translated the prologue and a fragment of the first chapter. This project was part of his proposal to the Milanese publisher Stella to publish a collection of the Greek moralists (among them Isocrates, Marcus Aurelius, and a selection of aphorisms from Plato, the Sententiae by Stobaeus, etc.). Cf. Volgarizzamenti (B2).
3. The Crusca explains that the letter H was used instead of the letter V, as if it were interpreted as a digamma.
Z 4147
1. For his critical notes on Theophrastus Leopardi used, in addition to Koraes, a translation by La Bruyère described by him further down this same page (cf. note 1 to Z 4472) and Joseph Simpson’s edition of Epictetus, which also included the Characters.
2. This reference to Creuzer is an unattached marginal addition, probably from 1827 (see Z 4294).
Z 4148
1. The author of this religious song (“The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ”) was in fact Niccolò Cicerchia (1335–after 1376) (Pacella).
Z 4149
1. Theophrastus, Characters 26, 5. Koraes, Les caractères de Théophraste, p. 143: “pauvre, mal mis et sale.”
2. See Z 4105–108. During these months, with the help of Karl Bunsen, Leopardi was attempting, though without success, to find some employment which would allow him to live an independent literary life in Bologna.
Z 4151
1. Cited from Arati Phaenomena et Diosemea, quibus subiiciuntur Eratosthenis Catasterismi, ed. F. C. Matthiae, Frankfurt on Main 1816 (see Prose, p. 1234). We omit Leopardi’s translation into Italian of the second part of the sentence.
2. The Greek paradoxographers, “thaumasiographers” in Leopardi’s terminology, were responsible for a genre of classical literature dealing with the occurrence of abnormal or inexplicable phenomena in the natural world. Leopardi had read the paradoxographers, in Meurs’s collection, in February 1825 (see Z 4127 and note 1, and Leopardi’s own note to Z 527).
Z 4152
1. Leopardi here cites from an article by S. Ciampi in Antologia, tome 20, underlining some words.
2. Memorabilia 2, 1, 27. Leopardi was translating this fable between November and December 1825.
3. Stobaeus, Sententiae 3, 7, 64, p. 91. In Latin: “Agatarsidae.” In his ms. Leopardi expresses his perplexity by writing “sic,” since he understood that the reference here ought to be to Agatharchides (of Cnidos).
Z 4153
1. Scaevola was celebrated in Roman legend for having thrust his hand into the fire to prove his bravery in front of the Etruscan king, Lars Porsena. For Atilius Regulus see Z 67 and note 3.
2. Stobaeus, ed. Gessner, Basel 1549, p. 88 (Sententiae 3, 7, 32 Hense).
3. In reality a passage from pseudo-Plato, Eryxias 400d, read by Leopardi in the edition by J. F. Fischer cited below, Aeschinis Socratici dialogi tres, Leipzig 1766.
Z 4154
1. La Bruyère, Les caractères 1, 4. See Z 4508.
2. See Forcellini: “urbs Thessaliae, nonnulli Sitonem nominant.”
3. All words in the same semantic area indicating comparison.
4. Fischer’s note is to Pseudo-Plato, Axiochus 367a, in the work listed on Z 4153, note 3.
5. Giving this verb in English in the manuscript, Leopardi stresses the similarity between the English verb and the Latin one in their composition and meaning.
6. Leopardi finds the reference to Hesychius (who explains the meaning of the second word as “a drin
k made from barley”) in Reliquiae, ed. I. Liebel, Vienna 1818, p. 69, in the note attached to fragment 28 D.
7. Variants of various verbs, with or without a zeta. Leopardi may here have had in mind his argument on Z 2825–26, validated by Liebel’s observation, made on Archilochus, fr. 42 West.
Z 4155
1. A transcription from Liebel, p. 77, who cites Plutarch in Reiske’s edition. The translation is from Loeb.
2. Leopardi here cites (from Liebel) the Animadversiones on the Greek Anthology by Friedrich Jacobs, which were in their turn printed in Pausaniae Greciae descriptio, ed. Johann Friedrich Facius, Leipzig 1794–96.
3. A transcription from Liebel’s edition of Archilochus which confirms for Leopardi the relation between “stare” and “essere” already noted on Z 1121, 2142, 2779ff., and 4086.
4. The form is actually mercadear.
Z 4156
1. These quotations from Homer and Euripides are taken from Liebel, who used them to illustrate an Archilochus fragment (fr. 128 West), but have been rearranged to suit Leopardi’s own purposes.
2. Cf. Archilochus fr. 122 West. Liebel cites from Stobaeus, Sententiae 4, 46, 10.
3. In these lines from Archilochus (fr. 114 West) Leopardi notes the “Italianisms” evident in the Greek.
4. Archilochus, fr. 128 West, ll. 4–5, taken from Liebel, p. 103, who had himself taken it from Stobaeus. In the following passage Leopardi summarizes Liebel’s note.
5. Archilochus, fr. 130 West.
6. Hecuba is a tragedy by Euripides.
Z 4157
1. The two quotations are from Epictetus, Encheiridion 32, 3 and 33, 13 (a passage also to be found on Z 4143). The second quotation, dated 3 December, was written after the succeeding thought but a sign in the manuscript indicates Leopardi’s intention to locate it here.
Z 4158
1. Leopardi transcribes here from Liebel’s edition of Archilochus, adding only “hunc” and “Rom. ed.” See Archilochus fr. 228 West.
2. Leopardi underlines “altro” in the ms., so as to stress the fact of its meaning “any” (that is to say, its redundancy, just as in Greek).
Z 4159
1. All this lengthy quotation comes from Liebel’s edition of Archilochus.
2. The above citations were taken by Leopardi from Koraes’s edition of Theophrastus, p. 315, notes to Characters, 26. “Athens” is an entry in Stephanus of Byzantium’s geographical dictionary Ethnica.
Z 4160
1. See La storia del regno dell’Imperatore Carlo Quinto, cit. on Z 4137, vol. 1, p. 20.
2. Petrarch, Rime 22, l. 34.
3. The Ethopoeiae of Alexandrinus Severus were character portraits.
Z 4161
1. See Z 304–305 and note.
Z 4162
1. Leopardi here cites from Gale’s Rhetores selecti.
2. Petrarch, Rime 72, l. 18, an example of a genitive serving as an accusative (cf. Z 4179).
3. Leopardi refers here (as well as above) to the Veronese edition of the Vocabolario della Crusca.
4. Gale, Rhetores selecti, loc. cit.
5. Petrarch, Rime 84, l. 6.
6. Petrarch, Rime 125, l. 60.
Z 4163
1. According to Giuliana Benvenuti, Il disinganno del cuore. G. L. tra malinconia e stoicismo, Rome: Bulzoni, 1998, p. 154, Leopardi reverses here the stoic interpretation of the topos of the “path of life,” as found, e.g., in Seneca, De constantia sapientis 1, 1: “The first part only has rocks and cliffs, and appears impassable, just as many places, when viewed from afar, seem often to be an unbroken steep since the distance deceives the eye; then, as you draw nearer, these same places, which by a trick of the eyes had merged into one, open up gradually, and what seemed from a distance precipitous is now reduced to a gentle slope” (Loeb). This thought is linked to the poem “Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell’Asia,” ll. 21–38.
2. See Rhetores Graeci, ed. Spengel, vol. 2, p. 82. We omit Leopardi’s translation into Italian of the last part of the sentence.
3. See Rhetores Graeci, ed. Spengel, vol. 2, p. 106.
4. A quotation from Manuel Garcia de Villanueva Hugalde y Parra, Origen, épocas y progresos del teatro español, Madrid 1802, p. 270, a book read in February 1826 (Pacella).
5. Epictetus, Encheiridion 47.
Z 4164
1. A quotation from Villanueva, Origen (as cited on Z 4163, note 4), p. 278.
2. In the edition of Camerarius the Progymnasmata of Libanius were mistakenly attributed to Theon, but Leopardi only became aware of the error some years later, thanks to L. de Sinner (letter of 30 March 1831, in Epistolario, p. 1783; see Timpanaro, La filologia, p. 123 [B11]). See now Libanius, Opera, ed. Förster, vol. 8, p. 68, 6. A chreia is a rhetorical exercise whereby a concept is amplified and explained.
3. See Libanius, Opera, ed. Förster, vol. 8, p. 83, 15. Cf. Z 3170 and 4121.
4. Ibid., p. 84, 10.
5. Ibid., p. 92, 8.
6. Ibid., p. 123, 12.
7. Ibid., p. 124, 18.
8. Ibid., p. 142, 14.
Z 4165
1. Ibid., p. 150, 2.
2. Ibid., p. 165, 6.
3. Ibid., p. 146, 17. For further comment by Leopardi on verbs of motion serving as verbs of acting, see Scritti filologici, p. 656.
4. See Libanius, Opera, ed. Förster, p. 165, 16. Cf. Z 4164.
5. Monti, Proposta, vol. 3, part 2, pp. 120–21.
6. These three lines of Greek verse are by Leopardi, perhaps—Pacella suggests—an allusion to Frederick II of Prussia (see Z 4096–98). See three lines of Latin verse on Z 85, which Timpanaro attributed to Leopardi. On Leopardi’s limited knowledge of prosody and metrics, notwithstanding his extraordinary mastery of Latin and Greek, cf. Timpanaro, La filologia, p. 154 (B11).
7. This line by Semonides of Amorgos, fr. 1 Bergk (l. 9), is cited from Stobaeus, ed. Basel 1549, discourse 96, “De vita brevi,” p. 527 (4, 34, 15 Hense). Leopardi was not aware of the existence of Semonides, and, like Stobaeus, attributed this fragment to Simonides. The fragment illustrates the idea that men always have great expectations of the new year bringing wealth and good things, the theme of the later operetta morale “Dialogo di un venditore d’almanacchi e di un passeggere.” See Z 4249–50, 4284 and note.
Z 4166
1. See Libanius, Progymnasmata, in Opera, ed. Förster, vol. 8, p. 181, 10.
2. Ibid., vol. 8, p. 334, 7.
3. Ibid., vol. 8, pp. 555, 7 and 559, 7.
4. Lucian, Adversus indoctum [The Ignorant Book-Collector] 14. The other purchase mentioned by Lucian, along with the terra-cotta lamp belonging to Epictetus (see Z 4145, note 1), is the stick belonging to Proteus the Cynic.
Z 4167
1. Dante, Inferno 14, 29; Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata 10, 61, 2.
2. Cited from the Thesaurus Graecae linguae, ed. H. Stephanus, Geneva 1572.
3. Cicero, De divinatione 2, 51. There is a clear allusion here to the Holy Alliance and to the Congress of Vienna. A haruspex was an Etruscan (later Roman) diviner, believed to be an interpreter of the will of the gods, through inspection of the entrails of sacrificial animals or through the study of “prodigies” (unusual births) and of lightning.
4. Virgil, Aeneid 7, 381–82.
Z 4169
1. On the basis of what he has written on Z 4099–101, 4127–32, and 4141–43 (but see also the comparison on Z 4162–63), Leopardi foreshadows the celebrated pages of Z 4174–77 on souffrance. For the premises of these thoughts cf., e.g., Z 1530–31, 1597–98 and notes.
2. Phaedrus, Fables 5, 3 (“The Bald Man and the Fly”), l. 8.
3. Monti, Proposta, vol. 3, part 2, p. 141.
Z 4170
1. Ibid., vol. 3, part 2, pp. 168–69.
2. Ibid., p. 189.
3. Line 132: “che per poco che teco non mi risso!”; per poco lets the verb mancare be understood, as is often the case in Greek. See Z 3817–18 and 4040.
4. Monti, Proposta, vol. 3, part 2, pp.
233–35.
5. Ibid., pp. 235–36; Biblioteca Italiana, tome 3, July 1816, pp. 268–69.
6. We know from Leopardi’s reading lists that in April 1826 he read Feith’s Antiquitatum Homericarum libri IV, Naples 1774. Feith cites Homer using Latin. The above bibliographical references are in one of his notes.
Z 4172
1. The theme of the relationship between ancient and modern civilization, one of the leading themes of the Zibaldone (see Z 162–63, 305, 416 and notes), features in the “Discorso … sui costumi” (probably 1824), that Leopardi may have been thinking about submitting to Antologia. Similar projects were sketched in subsequent years, as many entries show (cf. Z 4289, 4477–78 and note 2).
2. In Bologna Leopardi may have consulted the Paris 1819 edition (Renouard) of the Dictionnaire philosophique (this quotation in tome 3, p. 358). His reading of Voltaire’s dictionary may have prompted him to suggest to Stella that he compile a “Dizionario filosofico e filologico,” as M. Andria suggests (in Peruzzi [B1], vol. X, pp. 49, 100–104).
3. Monti, Proposta, vol. 3, part 2, pp. 267–69.
Z 4173
1. Leopardi transcribes a passage from the cited article by G. Amati, one of the most prominent Roman antiquarians.
2. Leopardi transcribes this passage on bilingualism in antiquity (see Z 988–91 and 2735–36) from Casaubon’s Animadversiones, bk. 1, ch. 2, p. 5.
Z 4174
1. Casaubon’s Animadversiones, bk. 1, ch. 5, p. 11 (on Athenaeus 5d).
2. In his Essais de Théodicée Leibniz had asserted that the world is the best of possible worlds, inasmuch as imperfection is the necessary premise for perfection. Alexander Pope, for his part, had expressed the idea in the Essay on Man that every discord is a harmony that has not been understood, and that every partial evil is a universal good. Throughout the whole Zibaldone Leopardi has meditated upon the possibility of a “contradiction” in nature (cf. Z 1530–31, 1597–98, 2337–38). A turning point coincides with the composition of the operetta morale “Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese” (end of May 1824), with its repercussions on Z 4087, 4099–101, 4127–32, 4141–43, 4162–63, 4168–69, and on this passage, where life—contradicting the view of the universe as a “miraculous and stupendous work of nature” of Z 2937—is described as a garden of “evil” and a “vast hospital.” On the problem of evil see also Z 4248, 4257–59, 4485–86, 4510–11. The following sentence, however, contradicts what precedes, as Antonio Moresco has pointed out: “At the high point of closure, the high point of opening! Here too the consoling lie of ‘pessimism’ is unmasked. Tragic thought, not pessimism” (Il vulcano. Scritti critici e visionari, Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1999, p. 79).
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