Sulla datazione del Dialogo Galantuomo e Mondo

This article proposes a new dating for Dialogo Galantuomo e Mondo, different from the date -June 1821- proposed by Giulio Augusto Levi in 1829 and reaffirmed by Ottavio Besomi in his critical edition of the Operette (1979). The arguments produced by the two scholars in defence of such an hypothesis are here questioned after carefully sifting through a series of concordances relating to the various phases in the development of Leopardi’s theoretical positions and a meticulous handwriting analysis of the autograph copy. These efforts made it possible to identify three distinct phases regarding the draft: the first involved the actual writing of the Dialogo (summer-autumn 1820); the second brought some additions to the text (summer 1821); and during the third phase a loose leaf was included with the manuscript (1823). Moreover, such a reconstruction sheds further light on the period in which Leopardi first began to compile the Operette in 1824.