A study of Giacomo Leopardi's linguistic annotations to his canzoni

Abstract

In the first chapter I give the text of the Annotazioni as published for the first time in 1824, together with a detailed study of the differences between this text and its re-publication in the periodical II Nuovo Ricoglitore in 1825. I devote the second chapter to a study of the manuscript of the Annotazioni, the Zibaldone, and Leopardi's letters, with a view to establishing the reason and date of the composition of the linguistic annotations. In the third chapter, I describe and analyse the character and contents of the text, and I make a critical evaluation of the same. In chapter 4 I examine the question of Leopardi's dependence on dictionaries for his annotations, and I attempt to estimate the success of the Annotazioni in the lexicographicsphere. In the last chapter I give a brief assessment of Leopardi's philological vocation and his position as related to the question of the language in the early 19th century; this is followed by a summary review of the linguistic element in contemporary literary criticism. In conclusion it is seen that Leopardi's active interest in linguistic problems is linked chronologically to the Annotazioni, and that it did not survive the decline of the anti-Crusca polemic.