Editing Giacomo Leopardi (section)

===The first ''canti'' (1818)===
{{Main|Canti (poetry collection)}}
[[File:Versi del conte Giacomo Leopardi.djvu|thumb|right|First edition of ''Canti'' by Leopardi]]

''All'Italia'' and ''Sopra il monumento di Dante'' marked the beginning of the series of major works. In the two ''canti'', the concept of "excessive" or "over-civilization" which is deleterious for life and beauty first makes its appearance. In the poem ''All'Italia'', Leopardi laments the fallen at the [[Battle of Thermopylae]] (480 BC, fought between the Greeks under [[Leonidas]] and the Persians under [[Xerxes I of Persia|Xerxes]]), and evokes the greatness of the past. In the second ''canto'', he turns to [[Dante]] and asks him for pity for the pathetic state of his fatherland. In the great ''canti'' which follow (forty-one, including fragments), there is a gradual abandonment of the reminiscences, of literary allusions and of conventionalisms.

In 1819, the poet attempted to escape from his oppressive domestic situation, by travelling to Rome. But he was caught by his father. In this period, his personal pessimism evolves into the peculiar [[philosophical pessimism]] of Leopardi. ''Le Rimembranze'' and ''L'appressamento della morte'' also belong to this early period of the art of Leopardi.