The Casa Leopardi in Recanati in
Marche will display from Friday till January 30 an autograph
copy of the great Romantic poet's homage to his illustrious
predecessor, 'On Dante's Monument', in the year marking the
700th anniversary of Dante's death.
The theme of the poem, inspired by preparations for the Dante
monument in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, is the state of
degradation and abandonment Italy is suffering from, like in
Dante time according to the famous words of Purgatory "Ah, Italy
enslaved, abode of misery, pilotless ship in a fierce storm".
Giacomo Leopardi "often cited Dante in his writings," said
Leopardi expert Fabiana Cacciapuoti, adding that "he saw in
Dante that ideal of poet and writer who founds Italian
literature, and hen the Italian language, and whoever founds a
language and literature founds a people".
Leopordi's poem, exhibited alongside his other political work
'To Italy', was so successful it prompted his great friend
Pietro Giordani to say they were both spreading like "an
electric fire".
The autograph poems are on display along with other rare works
and incunabula.
Leopardi (1798-1837) is universally recognised as Italy's second
greatest poet after Dante (C 1265-September 14, 1321).
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