Citation

Polizzi G. Studi e Problemi di Critica Testuale 2016; 93(2): 113-131.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016)

DOI

10.19272/201608302005

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article discusses the first study dedicated by Giovanni Gentile to Leopardi (1894) : an interpretation of the Ultimo canto di Saffo, required by his brother Gaetano. This paper by the nineteen-year-old Gentile shows a hidden aspect of his interpretation of Leopardi that recalls the writings by Bonaventura Zumbini and Domenico Comparetti about the figure of Sappho. The Ultimo canto di Saffo was a fashionable poem in the late nineteenth century : it contributed, with Bruto minore, to the image of a romantic Leopardi, dealing with two historical figures of suicides. We could say that around Leopardi's Sappho the interest for the figure of the Greek poetess, widely contaminated by Ovidian legend (A. Chemello) was revived. Gentile's reading of Leopardi's Sappho could benefit from a historical and philological reconstruction that was not available to Leopardi himself. This beautiful analysis by a nineteen-year-old student is exemplary ; he would be such keen on the poet of Recanati, that he eventually wrote some important pages, published in Manzoni e Leopardi (1928), and he edited, in 1918, an important edition of the Operette morali. We can certainly consider this paper a first sign of an interest that would accompany Gentile throughout his life.

Language: en