Giacomo Leopardi. Filosofo o poeta. Saggio e antologia

After Dante, Leopardi is the only great Italian author and poet to combine the poet’s astonishing imagination with the philosopher’s speculative depth. This anthology essay is based on the poetry-philosophy dichotomy, elements that run throughout Leopardi’s vast oeuvre, like two infinite parallels. The two phases of Leopardi’s work are emphasised here: the first, in which imagination is set against reason, and the second, in which the now mature Leopardi operates in an open yard, where thought is in motion. The anthological essay, edited by Paolo Montanari, contains critical, bibliographical and biographical citations and the anthology runs through extracts from the Canti, Operette Morali, Zibaldone and Paralipomeni by the great poet from Recanati. Among the Canti is the celebrated L’Infinito, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2020.