Recanati, Leopardi's manuscript on Dante monument to be built in Florence exhibited for the first time

From Oct. 29, 2021 to Jan. 30, 2022, the Manuscript Room of the Library of Casa Leopardi in Recanati will exhibit for the first time to the public the original manuscript of the canto Sopra il monumento di Dante, which was being prepared in Florence, along with some editions of the Divine Comedy. Casa Leopardi therefore also pays homage to the seven hundredth anniversary of Alighieri’s death. “It is a tribute to Dante on the occasion of the seven hundredth anniversary of his death,” Countess Olimpia Leopardi, a descendant of the famous poet, tells Ansa. “For our family it is a great pleasure to give the public the opportunity to enjoy the treasures of the Library that saw the formation of Giacomo.”

The canto was composed and published in 1818 in Recanati and refers to the plan to build a monument dedicated to the Supreme Poet; in addition, Leopardi ideally wrote to Dante to denounce the degradation and abandonment of Italy at the time.

In addition to the canto, six editions of the Commedia preserved within the Library, which were studied, leafed through and consulted by Leopardi himself, will be on display: from the 15th-century one, the oldest, to the one commented on by Ugo Foscolo.

According to Fabiana Cacciapuoti, curator of the Leopardi Fund at the National Library of Naples and member of the scientific committee of the National Center for Leopardi Studies in Recanati, Giacomo Leopardi chose Dante “as his interlocutor because he was the greatest poet in Italy.” He saw in Dante “that ideal of poet and writer who founds Italian literature, even before the Italian language. And he who founds a language and a literature founds a people,” he concludes.

Recanati, Leopardi's manuscript on Dante monument to be built in Florence exhibited for the first time

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