A Controversial Edition. The ‘Studi filologici’ of Giacomo Leopardi, Le Monnier, 1845

Abstract

In August 1845, after the two volumes of Leopardi's Opere edited by Antonio Ranieri, Felice Le Monnier published Studi filologici, which included 87 letters written by the poet. Of the three editors announced by the publisher, Pietro Giordani, Pietro Pellegrini and Prospero Viani, Viani was left uncredited on the title page, despite of the fact that he had had an important role in collecting the letters and the essays of Leopardi, and that he had written an essay which was inserted into the Studi filologici. In addition to the disappointment with the exclusion, which seems to have been the wish of Giordani, Viani had to bear the resentment of Pietro Brighenti and Paolina Leopardi for the publication of strictly private letters addressed to Brighenti.