User:Broletto/Archivio

Broletto is an ancient Italian word, from medieval Latin "broilum, brogilum", which probably derives from a Celtic word. Its first meaning is "little orchard or garden"; hence the meaning "field surrounded by a wall". Another meaning refers to a "place where justice is administered". This meaning explains why several places or buildings in northern Italy are called "Broletto".

Ancient Brolettoes (it.:"Broletti") are major buildings in Milan, Brescia, Pavia, Piacenza, Como, Monza, Reggio Emilia.

Leopardi's poetics

During all the years of his creativity, since adolescence to his premature death, Leopardi often wrote about poetry in general and about his own idea of poetry, of its language and scope. Many pages on this subject can be found in the Zibaldone, a private diary and collection of notes, literary projects, translations, etc. Until 1822-23, he affirms a superiority of ancient men over contemporary ones, because imagination was very strong in the past; hence came a kind of poetry which could give happiness through representations of a living nature, animated by gods and near to men's feelings. In modern era, however, the discovery of truth, due to science and philosophy, destroyed the faculty of imagination (with the only exception of little children). Therefore, in Leopardi's view, modern poetry can be no more imaginative but only "sentimental", the basic sentiment being that of contrast between sweet illlusions of past and blank, sad present time. The language fit to express these sentiments is based upon what is far away and vague: words which define are not poetic; words which are able to evoke distant feelings are poetic. This, roughly, is what is called, in Italian, "poetica dell'indefinito e del vago", which can be recognized in the Idylls and in Canti written between 1828 and 1830.

During the years 1824-28 Leopardi's thought reaches a turning point which later involves even his poetics. He understands that always mankind was and is unhappy, because of Nature which creates men only to destroy them in its never-ending cycle. No space is allowed to illusions, or to sweet memories of youth: truth must be affirmed with terse, even hard language. This "nuova poetica" (new poetics) explains why poems written between 1831 and 1837 offer less fascinatings images or recollections than the former poems. It is a language that sometimes seems to verge on prose; it is, indeed, a poetry which does not refrain from harsh or sarcastic phrases (see, for instance, La Ginestra) but is open to a new, secret type of musicality.