[The plants of I Promessi Sposi recount Alessandro Manzoni]

Abstract

If we focus on the wild plants described by Alessandro Manzoni in the novel I Promessi Sposi, it is possible to explore two important dimensions that have received little attention, namely the imaginary but realistic reconstruction of a 17th-century plant landscape and the writer's knowledge of wild flora. Manzoni's botanical expertise was enhanced in the management of the estate in Brusuglio (Milan), where his duties as a farmer put him in daily contact with plants and weeds of all kinds, good or bad for the progress of the estate, which the writer observed with curiosity and attention. Benefiting from this experience, the writer transposed 22 of the different wild species known to him into his novel to give each of them a setting and landscape role in the scenarios of the story's events. Today, these plants tell us about him.   [Article in Italian]