%0 Journal Article
%T The Ultimo canto di Saffo: A hidden figure of leopardism by Giovanni Gentile
%J Studi e Problemi di Critica Testuale
%D 2016
%A Polizzi, G.
%V 93
%N 2
%P 113-131
%X 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&#39;s Sappho the interest for the figure of the Greek poetess, widely contaminated by Ovidian legend (A. Chemello) was revived. Gentile&#39;s reading of Leopardi&#39;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.<p /><p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I 
%@ 0049-2361
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.19272/201608302005