The Operette morali ( ) is a collection of twenty-four prose works, comprising dialogues and novellas, written in a middle style with irony, composed by the poet and writer Giacomo Leopardi between 1824 and 1832.
The work was published in a definitive edition in Naples in 1835,A censored edition, which was reprinted ten years later by his friend Antonio Ranieri for the publisher Le Monnier. See also the 1835 edition and the 1845 edition. following two intermediate editions in 1827 and 1834. Antonio Ranieri, a longtime friend of Leopardi's, had it published in the original text in 1845. Unlike the Canti, the Operette morali were conceived during a single year, 1824, although the various editions demonstrate the addition of subsequent dialogues and adjustments to the final message.
The Operette morali represent the literary culmination of nearly the entirety of the material contained in the Zibaldone.Leopardi writes: The themes are those characteristic of the poet: the relationship between humanity and history, with its peers, and particularly with Nature, of which Leopardi develops a personal philosophical vision; the contrast between the values of the past and the static and degenerate condition of the present; the power of illusions, glory, and tedium. These themes are reconsidered in light of a radical change that occurred in the writer's outlook: reason is no longer merely an obstacle to happiness, but the only human instrument capable of escaping despair.
The Operette morali were frequently confused with a similar project by the author's father, Monaldo Leopardi, which achieved considerable success. As a result, Giacomo was often erroneously cited as the author of his father's work.
Background
The works reflect the conviction that reason, far from being the cause of man's unhappiness, is the only means by which man can avoid despair. Leopardi reached this final point of his reflection about the human condition in the years 1822–1824, and in 1824 he conceived the "Operette morali", which collected and elaborated in a dramatic and ironic expression of the philosophical research developed in the Zibaldone. In this period, Leopardi, believing that his lyrical voice had vanished, devoted himself to philosophical prose. The first idea of this work can be traced in the plan of some "prosette satiriche" (satirical prose), "alla maniera di Luciano" (following the style of Lucian).Dialoghi satirici alla maniera di Luciano, ma tolti i personaggi e il ridicolo dai costumi presenti e moderni, e non tanto tra i morti [...], quanto tra personaggi che si fingano vivi, ed anche volendo, fra animali [...]; insomma piccole commedie, o Scene di Commedie [...]: le quali potrebbero servirmi per provar di dare all'Italia un saggio del suo vero linguaggio comico che tuttavia bisogna assolutamente creare [...]. E questi dialoghi supplirebbero in certo modo a tutto quello che manca nella Comica Italiana, giacché ella non è povera d'intreccio d'invenzione di condotta ec., e in tutte quelle parti ella sta bene; ma le manca affatto il particolare cioè lo stile e le bellezze parziali della satira fina e del sale e del ridicolo attico e veramente e plautino e lucianesco [...].Giacomo Leopardi, Disegni letterari, Recanati, 1819, in:Ottavio Besomi, Scritti vari e inediti, Milano,1979 In Italian literature, nothing similar to the Operette can be found. Leopardi imitates Lucian's comical style with wit and humor, and moves through different levels of language. He even mixes various genres and themes.
Apart from Lucian, the most significant models in literary style come from the Enlightenment. Leopardi appreciates Fontenelle for his "leggerezza" (lightness), while in Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese, one can perceive some of Voltaire's cynicism. Among the Italians, Leopardi admired Ariosto, whose "comical style" he imitated in Dialogo della Terra e della Luna. The extensive knowledge of a great number of works, both philosophical and scientific, is the basis for the humorous and frivolous erudition that Leopardi ironically flaunted. A philological research about the sources that Leopardi cites or merely re-uses in the Operette, in a constant intertextual dialogue, is still lacking.
Origin of the work
Satirical prosettes
As early as 1820, Leopardi had considered the idea of writing satirical prosettes. This is the first evidence of the development of a cycle of prose works, presumably begun between 1818 and 1819, following the literary project of providing Italy with a modern philosophical language, inspired in its writing by the Greek moralists and, in general, by Menippean satire. However, only in 1824 that the project matured and encompassed a broader range of subjects and experiences.
At this time he moved to Rome, an attempt to leave Recanati, the "tomb of the living", in search of happiness; he seemed to go through a poetic crisis (the drying up of the lyrical vein of his early youth); and a philosophical crisis (the transition from historical-progressive materialism to cosmic materialism).
In a passage from the "Literary Designs", reconstructed from autograph papers in Recanati, Leopardi reveals his intention to write:.
Besomi is credited with reconstructing, as faithfully as possible, the dates of composition of these initial sketches. The influence of the disappointment following the Neapolitan revolts of 1820–1821 was not extraneous; these events caused the political tone of these early attempts to disappear.
Blasucci and Secchieri consider the period of the satirical prosettes to be distinct from the Operette morali proper. The first nucleus Although their dating is uncertain, the following prose experiments can be assigned to the period 1820–1821:Besomi assigns probable dates based on the classical authors and texts cited in them, which are recorded in the pages of the Zibaldone: Velleius Paterculus, 22 December 1820; Appian's Civil Wars, 29 April 1821; Florus, 7 January 1821; Tacitus, 2 January 1821, etc.
Dialogue: ...Greek philosopher, Murcus the Roman senator, the Roman people, conspirators Dialogue between two beasts, e.g., a horse and a bull Dialogue of a horse and an ox and related additions Dialogue: Gentleman and World First fragment of Novella: Xenophon and Niccolò Machiavelli
These early dialogues exhibit certain characteristic features of the Lucianic style (conversation in the underworld, forms of low as well as high comedy) that are also found in the Operette morali proper.
The main theme of this nucleus is the "penitence of virtue", that is, the choice of a moral writing that can no longer teach those "magnanimous errors" that "embellish our life". These errors are virtue and glory. The new writing renounces poetry (lyric) and the persuasion of enthusiasm; it consists, very practically, in abstaining from political and philanthropic commitment. Only irony and play for its own sake remain: Xenophon and Machiavelli, the Cyropaedia and The Prince, are placed in comparison.
The dialogues and novellas are continuously interwoven and varied, making it difficult, if not impossible, to construct a unified overview. Situations, characters, places, and times continually change; "there emerges a bizarre world of popular and childlike taste, full of grace and genial vanity". The pleasure of variation and discontinuity is clearly evident: the reader is provoked and stimulated; the conclusion of the work is left to their responsibility. This aspect finds its fullest realization in the Dialogue of Plotinus and Porphyry.
The sketches from 1820–1821 contain critical themes directed against absolutism and anthropocentrism. The strong political tone, which later disappears and is taken up only in the final operette, provides such profound material for reflection that it leads to a change in the author's psychological, philosophical-moral, and literary attitude, resulting in a reconsideration of the very form of expression, the transition from poetry to prose.
Between 1822 and 1823, the poet transcribed in a page of the Zibaldone, designated as "literary projects", an approximate index of 17 operette. Many dialogues and novellas are already present, albeit with provisional titles:
Leap from Leucadia Hegesias of Piraeus Timon and Socrates Nature and soul Prince of the new Cynosarges Second youth Misenor and Philenor Beppo Tiresias Cunning and Force Tasso and Genius Gentleman and World The muleteer and the mule, or the Aponosian The two mice Hippocrates and Democritus The nightingale and the rose The sun and the first hour, or Copernicus
The definitive edition The definitive version of the Operette morali follows this order:
History of the human race, 19 January / 7 February 1824 Dialogue of Hercules and Atlas, 10 / 13 February 1824 Dialogue of Fashion and Death, 15 / 18 February 1824 Proposal of prizes made by the Academy of the Graphomaniacs, 22 / 25 February 1824 Dialogue of a Goblin and a Gnome, 2 / 6 March 1824 Dialogue of Malambruno and Farfarello, 1 / 3 April 1824 Dialogue of Nature and of a Soul, 9 / 14 April 1824 Dialogue of the Earth and of the Moon, 24 / 28 April 1824 The Wager of Prometheus, 30 April / 8 May 1824 Dialogue of a Physicist and a Metaphysician, 14 / 19 May 1824 Dialogue of Nature and of an Icelander, 21 / 30 May 1824 Dialogue of Torquato Tasso and of his Familiar Genius, 1 / 10 June 1824 Dialogue of Timander and Eleander, 14 / 24 June 1824 Parini, or On Glory, 6 July / 30 August 1824 Dialogue of Frederick Ruysch and of his Mummies, 16 / 23 August 1824 Memorable Sayings of Filippo Ottonieri, 29 August / 26 September 1824 Dialogue of Christopher Columbus and of Pedro Gutierrez, 19 October / 5 November 1824 Encomium of Birds, 29 October / 5 November 1824 Song of the Wild Rooster, 10 / 16 November 1824 Apocryphal Fragment of Strato of Lampsacus, autumn 1825 Copernicus, 1827 Dialogue of Plotinus and Porphyry, 1827 Dialogue of an Almanac Seller and of a Passerby, 1832 Dialogue of Tristan and of a Friend, 1832
Editorial history 1824 index In 1888, during the transfer of papers from Antonio Ranieri to the National Library of Naples, an autograph manuscript containing an index for the twenty operette composed up to that point came to light. This index differs from both the first printed edition and all subsequent known printed editions.
The autograph is a fair copy carefully prepared with wide margins to accommodate notes and annotations, primarily of a grammatical and stylistic nature. Based on the different colors of ink used, it has been possible to distinguish three phases of correction prior to May 1826. Unlike the Canti, the Operette morali did not undergo substantial changes.Almost all were composed between January and November 1824, with the exceptions of the Apocryphal Fragment of Strato of Lampsacus (autumn 1825), Copernicus, or On Glory and the Dialogue of Plotinus and Porphyry (1827), and the Dialogue of an Almanac Seller and a Passerby and the Dialogue of Tristan and a Friend (1832).
In this first version, which was never committed to print, it is noteworthy that the work concludes with the Song of the Wild Rooster, which echoes the opening novella, the History of the Human Race. Leopardi entrusts an eschatological message to a supernatural being, thereby emphasizing the more philosophical aspects of his thought. This concluding image disappears in subsequent editions, only to be partially recovered later in the pairing of the Song with the Apocryphal Fragment of Strato of Lampsacus, which is preceded by a brief footnote in the 1835 edition.
1827 edition