Editing Giacomo Leopardi (section)

==Philosophical works==
===The ''Zibaldone''===
[[File:Pensaments (1912).djvu|thumb|upright|''Pensaments'' by Leopardi, a 1912 Catalan edition of the ''Pensieri'']]

The ''[[Zibaldone]] di pensieri'' (see also [[Commonplace book#Zibaldone]]) is a collection of personal impressions, aphorisms, philosophical observations, philological analyses, literary criticism and various types of [[notebook (style)|notes]] which was published posthumously in seven volumes in 1898 with the original title of ''Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura'' (''Miscellaneous Thoughts on Philosophy and Good Literature'').<ref>[[Tim Parks|Parks, Tim]], [https://www.nybooks.com/online/2013/05/28/leopardi-bernhard-echoes/ "Echoes from the Gloom"], ''The New York Review of Books'', May 28, 2013.</ref>

The publication took place thanks to a special governmental commission presided over by [[Giosuè Carducci]] on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the poet's birth. It was only in 1937, after the republication of the original text enriched with notes and indices by the literary critic Francesco Flora, that the work definitively took on the name by which it is known today.

In the ''Zibaldone'', Leopardi compares the innocent and happy state of nature with the condition of modern man, corrupted by an excessively developed faculty of reason which, rejecting the necessary illusions of myth and religion in favour of a dark reality of annihilation and emptiness, can only generate unhappiness. The ''Zibaldone'' contains the poetic and existential itinerary of Leopardi himself; it is a miscellanea of philosophical annotations, schemes, entire compositions, moral reflections, judgements, small idylls, erudite discussions and impressions. Leopardi, even while remaining outside of the circles of philosophical debate of his century, was able to elaborate an extremely innovative and provocative vision of the world. It is not much of a stretch to define Leopardi as the father of what would eventually come to be called [[nihilism]].

[[Schopenhauer]], in mentioning the great minds of all ages who opposed [[optimism]] and expressed their knowledge of the world's misery, wrote: 
{{Blockquote|But no one has treated this subject so thoroughly and exhaustively as Leopardi in our own day. He is entirely imbued and penetrated with it; everywhere his theme is the mockery and wretchedness of this existence. He presents it on every page of his works, yet in such a multiplicity of forms and applications, with such a wealth of imagery, that he never wearies us, but, on the contrary, has a diverting and stimulating effect.|''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Vol. II, Ch. XLVI}}

[[John Gray (philosopher)|John Gray]], reviewing the first complete English translation of the ''Zibaldone'' in 2013, wrote that "Leopardi’s subtle sensibility eludes conventional intellectual categories and the true achievement of this subversive genius has been little recognised [...] The first full English version of the Zibaldone is a major event in the [[history of ideas]]", stating that, thanks to the translation, "Leopardi will be ranked among the supreme interrogators of the [[Modernity|modern condition]]".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=John |title=The barbarism of reason: John Gray on the Notebooks of Leopardi |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/09/barbarism-reason |access-date=21 April 2025 |publisher=[[New Statesman]] |date=26 September 2013}}</ref>