Naples National Library acquires a letter from Leopardi with a thought on friendship

The National Library of Naples acquires a valuable new autograph by Giacomo Leopardi, it is a privately signed letter from the poet from Recanati to his cousin Giuseppe Melchiorri. The Ministry of Culture exercised its right of pre-emption by securing the autograph and preventing it from being sold to private individuals, the letter goes to enrich even more the precious Leopardi collection of the National Library of Naples, which holds the original works of Giacomo Leopardi and more than 90 percent of the correspondence sent by relatives and friends to Leopardi himself.

This is an autograph letter signed and dated Recanati August 29, 1823 addressed to his cousin, Marquis Giuseppe Melchiorri in Rome, mentioning the break with Visconti, the death of Pope Pius VII and the subsequent conclave. The letter was purchased folded and slinged in the first volume of the poet’s 1883 Epistolario, published by Le Monnier, Florence, an edition in which the letter does not appear, as if to fill the gap. “Dear Peppino,” the letter begins: with his cousin, Giacomo Leopardi maintains a correspondence pervaded with accents of affection similar to those reserved for his brother Carlo. In fact, the two cousins are almost the same age, and thanks to the confidence acquired in the course of their frequentation during Giacomo’s Roman sojourns, they confided opinions and judgments. The eagerness to share sorrows and anxieties, opinions and judgments, hopes and disappointments shines through in the letter, which opens with a reference to the rift between Melchiorri and Visconti and a fine comment on the importance of friendship: “Truly friendships either should never be made, or tight that they were should never be broken. However, I am well assured and well persuaded that the fault in this was not yours.”

Melchiorri is very close to Leopardi in those years and shares with him alove for philological studies. In the letter we find reference, in fact, to the “stamponi ”pertaining to Leopardi’s work “Annotazioni sopra la Cronica d’Eusebio,” and the discussion between two cousins about the collection of Latin classics published by Pomba, a Turin publisher, between 1818 and 1835, entitled Collectio Latinorum scriptorum cum notis, is reported.

“The National Library of Naples,” says director Maria Iannotti, “proud to be custodian of the legacy of the poet most loved by Italians, has for a long time engaged, supported by the General Directorate of Libraries of the Ministry of Culture , directed by Paola Passarelli, in a constant and patient effort of reconnaissance to further integrate also the nucleus of letters written, instead, by Leopardi himself and addressed to literati, family members and friends, of which traces have often been lost, compromised by the succession of heirs. The Leopardi epistolary proves to be of fundamental importance for a greater understanding of Leopardi’s personality and thought by revealing artistic, poetic and personal aspects linked to specific places and historical moments. The autograph accounts of the letters make it possible to ascertain and confirm facts, already known in the literature and mentioned in the published copies. We would like to thank the General Directorate of Libraries of the Ministry of Culture , whose intervention has allowed from 2018 to date the acquisition of as many as 6 Leopardi letters of special bibliographic and historical interest, and this one is no less.”

Naples National Library acquires a letter from Leopardi with a thought on friendship

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.