The project seeks to continue a fruitful research begun in 2011, and continued in two further stages thanks to university funding, with the aim of establishing a Leopardi Lexicon. We are convinced that only through a close study of an author¿s exact use of words, their context and interrelationships, it is possible to reach an understanding of his or her thought structures. Leopardi¿s poetry and prose are particularly suited to this type of innovative investigation because in them can be seen a network of semantic and lexical relationships that tends toward a system in which the lexical choices are never casual. This study is facilitated by the fact that the Zibaldone is a unique work of its kind, in which this system takes a concrete form, anticipating cognitive networks. On the strength of its success in Italy and abroad, the well-established working group on Lessico Leopardiano at Sapienza, coordinated by Franco D¿Intino (PI for this project , and Director of the Lab Leopardi Sapienza) is widening the scope of its research to the whole of the XIXth century, through collaboration with another research group within the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy: Revolution Restoration Risorgimento. Italian Literature 1789-1870, co-ordinated by Silvia Tatti within the Italianists¿ Association (ADI) . The common goal is to explore the expressive, linguistic, and semantic systems pertaining to the aesthetic discourses and literary practices of the performative arts (melodrama, theatre, music etc.) of the century that sees the growth of the modern idea of a specifically Italian linguistic and literary space, and vis-à-vis other languages and literatures. The exploration of leopardian lexicon, which lies at the foundation of this research, will thus widen and deepen its scope by addressing literary, musical and theatre sources. This will enable this investigation to place Leopardi¿s language within the whole lexical/semantic/cultural system of its time.
As previously stated, semantic and lexical research on Leopardi, or more generally speaking on the nineteenth-century, is rather sparse, to the exception of the work led by the PI, which has won over the years considerable prestige at national and international level. Its contribution lies in an original and innovative model, indispensable for any studies of the history of the language and of culture (not only literary or humanistic) for the period spanning the revolutions and the unity of Italy. As for Leopardi, there do exist studies on several aspects of Leopardi¿s views on aesthetics (for ex. R.Gaetano, Giacomo Leopardi e il sublime, 2002; A. Camiciottoli, L¿antico romantico. Leopardi e il sistema del bello (1816-1832), 2010), as well as studies on Leopardi¿s relationship with ancient poetics, for example G. Lonardi, L¿oro di Omero. L¿Iliade, Saffo: Leopardi e gli antichissimi, 2005); but critical discourse, despite some very important results, never goes as afr as to fully and systematically define the depth of Leopardian lexicon, and the variations it undergoes a) through time, b) the confrontation with different fields of knowledge, c) affected by the specific needs of genre. As for the Nineteenth century, we have at our disposal agreater number of investigations by historians of the language (for example, L. Serianni, Storia dell¿italiano nell¿Ottocento, 2013; Per l¿italiano di ieri e di oggi, 2018; by literary historians (for example S. Tatti, Classico. Storia di una parola, 2015), musicologists and expoerts on melodrama (for example Le parole della musica, ed. By M.T.Muraro, 1995; D. Goldin, Lessico melodrammatico verdiano, 1995, etc.) but an overall, complete picture is still lacking.
According to the model successfully tested out during the previous phases of research (2.0 and 3.0), an intensive series of internal seminars will be organized to build up the new group of entries. This wide and long-lasting research group comprises many other Leopardi and 19th century scholars (see below, § 5) and above all young academics (research fellows, postgraduate students, etc.) from many Italian, European and extra-European academic backgrounds who have also had experience of studying Leopardi in various disciplinary areas, and who combine research for the Lexicon with a scientific study of various aspects of Leopardi (J. Bertolio, E. Brozzi, R. Bruni, L. Capitano, C. Carù, M. Centenari, L. Cesaroni, P. Cori, C. Coriasso, S. Datteroni, F. Di Ruzza, N. Feo, S. Garofalo, C. Gazzeri, L. La Pietra, R. Lauro, A. Malagamba, A. Mirra, A. Paolella, S. Ricca, M. Trzeciak, C. Veronese, S. Versace and others). Most of them have written entries for the Lexicon. Also participating in the research are MA students who have been assigned theses on various entries, and who, by taking an active part in seminars, learn about the ways in which the research is carried out. Some of our students (A. Mirra, M. Piperno and M. Karp) have obtained PhD scholarships abroad, at universities of great prestige (Penn, Warwick, Cork, Brown) on subjects relating to Leopardi. The interaction between the aspect of pure research and the educational aspect is one of the goals we intend to achieve. The research fellowship will be given to a young scholar who as well as producing various entries will have the task of coordination, essential for the successful outcome of the group work.
We plan to collect and disseminate the result both on the Laboratorio Leopardi site (https://web.uniroma1.it/lableopardi) and in a series of digital open access volumes on the model of those already published (see above). In this way we will be able to edit and reorganize the results and at the same time to reach a large international audience. The results of this work aim to offer, in the short and long term, a unique point of reference, scientific and cultural, that will become indispensable for all scholars and readers of Leopardi and of Italian and European Nineteenth-century, and for anyone intending to study the body of work of any individual author..