Editing Giacomo Leopardi (section)

==Biography==
[[File:CasaLeopardi.JPG|thumb|The Palazzo Leopardi in [[Recanati]]]]

Leopardi was born into a local noble family in [[Recanati]], in the [[Marche]], at the time ruled by the [[papacy]]. His father, Count [[Monaldo Leopardi]], who was fond of literature and a committed reactionary, remained an advocate of traditional ideals. His mother, Marchioness Adelaide Antici Mattei, was a cold and authoritarian woman, obsessed with rebuilding the family's financial fortunes, which had been destroyed by her husband's gambling addiction. A rigorous discipline of religion and economy reigned in the home. However, Giacomo's happy childhood, which he spent with his younger brother Carlo Orazio and his sister Paolina, left its mark on the poet, who recorded his experiences in the poem ''Le Ricordanze''.

[[File:Giacomo Leopardi.jpg|thumb|A portrait of Leopardi]]

Following a family tradition, Leopardi began his studies under the tutelage of two priests, but his thirst for knowledge was quenched primarily in his father's rich library. Initially guided by Father Sebastiano Sanchini, Leopardi undertook vast and profound reading. These "mad and most desperate" studies included an extraordinary knowledge of classical and philological culture&nbsp;– he could fluently read and write Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew&nbsp;– but he lacked an open and stimulating formal education.

Between the ages of twelve and nineteen, he studied constantly, driven also by a need to escape spiritually from the rigid environment of the paternal palazzo. His continual studies undermined an already fragile physical constitution, and his illness, probably [[Pott's disease]] or [[ankylosing spondylitis]], denied him youth's simplest pleasures.<ref name=sganzerla>Erik Pietro Sganzerla, ''Malattia e morte di Giacomo Leopardi. Osservazioni critiche e nuova interpretazione diagnostica con documenti inediti'', Booktime, 2016: "Questo libretto rende giustizia a un uomo che soffriva di numerosi problemi fisici, che ebbe una vita non felice e una cartella clinica in cui sono posti in evidenza i sintomi e il loro decorso temporale, l'età d'esordio della progressiva deformità spinale e dei problemi visivi e gastrointestinali, l'influenza delle condizioni psichiche e ambientali nell'accentuazione o remissione dei segnali. […] altamente probabile la diagnosi di Spondilite Anchilopoietica Giovanile" (This booklet does justice to a man who was suffering from numerous physical problems, who had an unhappy life and a medical record in which are highlighted the symptoms and their time course, the age of onset of the progressive spinal deformities and visual and gastrointestinal problems, the influence of psychological and environmental conditions on the accentuation or remission of signals. […] highly likely the diagnosis of Juvenile Ankylosing Spondylitis)" (from the Introduction).</ref> He was 1.65 meters (5&nbsp;ft 5 in) tall, but his health problems led him to stand only 1,41m (4 feet 8 inches)  tall.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://corrierediarezzo.it/news/ultime-notizie/322543/giacomo-leopardi-segreti-curiosita-e-malattie-il-vero-nome-l-altezza-l-igiene-e-le-lingue.html|title=Giacomo Leopardi : i segreti, le curiosità, le malattie|language=it |author=Giuseppe Silvestri|date=7 January 2025|access-date=January 12, 2025}}</ref>

In 1817 the classicist [[Pietro Giordani]] arrived at the Leopardi estate. He became a lifelong friend of Giacomo, who derived from this a sense of hope for the future. Meanwhile, his life at Recanati weighed on him increasingly, to the point where he attempted to escape in 1818, but he was caught by his father and brought home. Thereafter relations between father and son continued to deteriorate, and Giacomo was constantly monitored by the rest of the family.

When in 1822 he was briefly able to stay in Rome with his uncle, he was deeply disappointed by its atmosphere of corruption and decadence and by the hypocrisy of the Church. He was impressed by the tomb of [[Torquato Tasso]], to whom he felt bound by a common sense of unhappiness. While [[Ugo Foscolo|Foscolo]] lived tumultuously between adventures, amorous relations, and books, Leopardi was barely able to escape from his domestic oppression. To Leopardi, [[Rome]] seemed squalid and modest when compared to the idealized image that he had created of it.<ref>Giacomo Leopardi, ''A Silvia'', v. 16: le sudate carte.</ref> He had already suffered disillusionment in love at home, with his cousin Geltrude Cassi. Meanwhile, his physical ailments continued to worsen.

In 1824, a bookstore owner, Stella, called him to Milan, asking him to write several works, including ''Crestomazia della prosa e della poesia italiane''. He moved during this period between [[Milan]], [[Bologna]], [[Florence]] and [[Pisa]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Crestomazia italiana poetica, cioè scelta di luoghi in verso italiano insigni o per sentimento o per locuzione, raccolti, e distribuiti secondo i tempi degli autori dal conte Giacomo Leopardi by LEOPARDI, Giacomo (1798-1837): Molto buono (Very Good) (1828) {{!}} Libreria Alberto Govi di F. Govi Sas|url=https://www.abebooks.com/Crestomazia-italiana-poetica-cio%C3%A8-scelta-luoghi/30286855517/bd|access-date=2021-10-14|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en}}</ref> In 1827 in Florence, Leopardi met [[Alessandro Manzoni]], although they did not see things eye to eye. He paid a visit to Giordani and met the historian [[Pietro Colletta]].

[[File:Giacomoleopardi1837.jpg|thumb|left|Leopardi on his deathbed]]
[[File:Tomba leopardi napoli.jpg|thumb|upright|The tomb of Leopardi at [[Parco Virgiliano (Mergellina)]], [[Naples]]]]

In 1828, physically infirm and worn out by work, Leopardi refused the offer of a professorship in Bonn or Berlin, made by the Ambassador of Prussia in Rome. In the same year, he had to abandon his work with Stella and return to Recanati. In 1830, Colletta offered him a chance to return to Florence, thanks to a financial contribution from the "Friends of Tuscany". The subsequent printing of the ''Canti'' allowed him to live away from Recanati until 1832. Leopardi found kindred company among the liberals and republicans seeking to liberate Italy from its yoke to Austria. Although his idiosyncratic and pessimistic ideas made him a party of one, he railed against Italy's "state of subjection" and was "in sympathy with the ideals of constitutionalism, republicanism and democracy, and supportive of movements urging Italians to fight for their independence."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosengarten |first1=Frank |title=Giacomo Leopardi's Search for a Common Life Through Poetry |date=2012 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |page=124}}</ref>

Later he moved to Naples near his friend [[Antonio Ranieri]], hoping to benefit physically from the climate. Here he became a close friend of the [[Freemasonry in Italy|Freemason]] [[Alessandro Poerio]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://napoli.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/17_maggio_22/leopardi-massoneria-portici-ranieri-voleva-trasferirsi-li-col-poeta-857b2eb8-3ed7-11e7-a557-98d60383f614.shtml|title=Leopardi e la massoneria a Portici Ranieri voleva trasferirsi lì col poeta|location=Naples|author=Roberto Russo (R.R.)|date=22 May 2017|language=it|access-date=21 September 2023|website=[[Il Corriere della Sera]]}}</ref> while since 1817 he had an intimate and confidential correspondance with the Freemason [[Pietro Giordani]].<ref>{{Cite web|author=Maria Paola Macioci|url=https://www.sololibri.net/Chi-era-Pietro-Giordani-scrittore-amico-di-Giacomo-Leopardi.html|title=Chi era Pietro Giordani, lo scrittore piacentino che fu amico di Giacomo Leopardi|website=SoloLibri.net|access-date=2025-01-18|language=it}}</ref>

Leopardi died during the cholera epidemic of 1837, the immediate cause probably being [[pulmonary edema]] or [[heart failure]], due to his fragile physical condition. Thanks to Antonio Ranieri's intervention with the authorities, Leopardi's remains were not buried in a common grave (as the strict hygiene regulations of the time required), but in the atrium of the Church of San Vitale at [[Fuorigrotta]]. In 1898 his tomb was moved to the [[Parco Virgiliano (Mergellina)]] and declared a national monument.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/modernitalianli00collgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/modernitalianli00collgoog/page/n230 220]|title=Modern Italian Literature|last=Collison-Morley|first=Lacy|date=1 January 1912|publisher=Little, Brown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSZHAQAAMAAJ&q=leopardi%27s+tomb+national+monument&pg=PA35|title=Modern Language Notes|date=1 January 1900|publisher=Johns Hopkins Press}}</ref>

There has been speculation in academic circles that Leopardi may have had [[homoromantic]] tendencies.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giM73n_lca4C&q=giacomo+leopardi+homosexual&pg=PA267|title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II|last1=Aldrich|first1=Robert|last2=Wotherspoon|first2=Garry|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-15982-1}}</ref> His intimate friendships with other men, particularly Ranieri, involved expressions of love and desire beyond what was typical even of Romantic poets. In an account of his time in Tuscany, it was written that he "became frenzied about love" whenever in the presence of the handsome younger brother of a woman he and Ranieri both admired (Fanny Targioni-Tozzetti), and that when so frenzied he would direct his sentiments towards Ranieri. In 1830, Leopardi received a letter from [[Pietro Colletta]], nowadays interpreted as a declaration of [[Freemasonry in Italy|masonic]] brotherhood.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/2005/09/18/Cultura/SCRITTORI-MASSONERIA-E-LETTERATURA-UNO-STRETTO-LEGAME-DA-CARDUCCI-A-CALVINOSCHEDA-2_122004.php | title = Freemasonry and Literature: a close relationship from Carducci to Italo Calvino | date = 18 September 2005 | language = it | website = adnkronos | access-date = 21 September 2018 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20180922170825/http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/2005/09/18/Cultura/SCRITTORI-MASSONERIA-E-LETTERATURA-UNO-STRETTO-LEGAME-DA-CARDUCCI-A-CALVINOSCHEDA-2_122004.php | archive-date = 22 September 2018 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://storianumismatica.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/massoni-leopardi-e-lasciapassare/ | title = Massoni, Leopardi e lasciapassare | date = 1 December 2017 | language = it | access-date = 20 September 2018 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20180922165830/https://storianumismatica.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/massoni-leopardi-e-lasciapassare/ | archive-date = 22 September 2018 | url-status = live }}</ref> Leopardi's close friend Antonio Ranieri was a [[Master Mason]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.massoneriascozzese.it/personaggi.htm | title = On the bicentenarious of Giacomo Leopardi | language = it | website = massoneriascozzese.it | access-date = 20 September 2018 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20180921221257/http://www.massoneriascozzese.it/personaggi.htm | archive-date = 21 September 2018 }}</ref> Nonetheless, over the course of his life Leopardi had more than twenty-five sentimental female friendships, such as the ones with [[Teresa Carniani|Teresa Carniani Malvezzi]] or [[Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.affaritaliani.it/culturaspettacoli/libri-tutte-donne-di-leopardi190109.html?refresh_ce|archive-url=https://archive.today/20190106203937/http://www.affaritaliani.it/culturaspettacoli/libri-tutte-donne-di-leopardi190109.html?refresh_ce|archive-date=2019-01-06|title=Giacomo Leopardi. Le donne, gli amori|author=Raffaele Urraro|publisher=[[Leo S. Olschki Editore|Olschki]]|year=2008|isbn=978-88-222-5803-8|series=Biblioteca «Archivum Romanicum»|language=it}}</ref>

The Leopardi family share the origin of [[Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa|Tomasi's family]], at the time of the Roman emperor [[Constantine the Great]].<ref>{{cite book | author1 = [[Vincenzo Palazzolo di Gravina]] | title = Il blasone in Sicilia | url = https://archive.org/details/ilblasoneinsicil00pali |publisher = Visconti & Huber | year = 1875 | language = it}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author1 = [[Filadelfo Mugnos|F. Mugnos]] | title = Teatro genologico delle famiglie del Regno di Sicilia, rist. an. | publisher = Forni | location = Sala Bolognese | year = 2007 | volume = III | language = it}} The Leopardi were descendants of Leopardo, son of Crispo, eldest son of Constantine the Great.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author1= A. Vitello | title = I Gattopardi di Donnafugata | language = it | publisher = Flaccovio | year = 1963 | page = 39}}</ref>