The work aims at investigating the presence of Plato in Giacomo Leopardi’s works, in order to understand the influence of the philosopher’s dialogues on the genesis of the “Operette morali”. While maintaining the focus on the “Operette”, however, the research also explores many other areas of Leopardi’s production, in order to offer the widest and most exhaustive overview of the different sources and filters through which Leopardi became acquainted with Plato’s doctrines, even before reading his dialogues comprehensively. The first section explores the reception of Plato in Italy before Leopardi, by examining the attempts at translating his works and the various interpretations of his dialogues proposed throughout the eighteenth century up to the first decade of the nineteenth century. If placed in this context, the failure of Leopardi’s project to translate all of Plato’s dialogues, as proposed by the publisher De Romanis, can no longer be interpreted just as the result of a private matter, but also as a stage in a historical path that has never been outlined in its entirety until now. The rest of the work, articulated in other three sections, is entirely dedicated to Giacomo Leopardi’s work.Firstly, the thesis focuses on Leopardi’s earliest production, mapping the occurrences of the name “Plato”, as well as all the quotes either related to the philosopher or taken from his dialogues, in Leopardi’s “Puerilia” (1809-1810), “Dissertazioni filosofiche” (1811-1812), “Dialogo filosofico” (1812), “Storia dell’Astronomia” (1813) and, finally, in his “Saggio sopra errori popolari degli antichi” (1815). Research shows that Leopardi had been reading Ficino’s edition of Plato’s complete works (Lugduni, 1590) (which was present in the family library) since writing the first drafts of his erudite writings; therefore, Leopardi’s direct knowledge of Plato’s texts, even if partial, must be backdated compared to what has been noted so far. Furthermore, extending the research on Leopardi’s knowledge of Plato not only to his first stay in Rome but also to the following years confirms that it’s not possible to have Leopardi’s Plato coincide with Ast’s Plato: there is evidence of the fact that Leopardi knew and had read or consulted several other editions of Plato’s dialogues and that therefore his knowledge of the philosopher was quite extensive, although conditioned by different interpretative perspectives. The research then focuses on the “Zibaldone” and on the “Operette” in order to reconstruct the profile of Leopardi’s Plato, as it emerges from the “scartafaccio”, as well as the methods of re-elaboration of the dialogues found within Leopardi’s moral book. The last two chapters of the thesis are dedicated to the latter objective. Starting from an analysis of the genesis of only two operettas, the “Elogio degli uccelli “ and the “Dialogo di Plotino e di Porfirio”, the aim is to demonstrate how the “Plato function” is expressed not only through form, as critics have long believed, but also in terms of philosophical elaboration. This study ultimately proves that Plato, acting both as a model and an anti-model for the “Operette morali”, had a profound effect on the genesis of this book which, according to Leopardi’s own declaration, was intended to be “entirely philosophical and metaphysical”.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse Zibaldone di pensieri, the private diary of Italian poet, writer and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to Leopardi's biography. We focus on his childhood, youth and on the events that had effect on his thinking. The crucial part of the thesis deals with the diary Zibaldone; with its structure, autobiographical features and with various ways in which we can look at this text. In the following part of the work we analyse some of the topics of Zibaldone. Observing the development of Leopardi's thinking, we deal with various phases of author's pessimism and with his perception of nature, reason, human destiny and ancient and modern world.

Le Zibaldone est le grand journal de pensées de Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837). Le jeune philologue et poète y consigne, sur près de quinze ans (1817-1832) et plus de 4500 pages, des pensées qu’il nomme « de philosophie variée et de belle littérature ». Et en effet, c’est bien la variété, et même la plus étonnante bigarrure qui caractérisent ce monumental magasin d’écriture : bigarrure des matières brassées (théorie de la connaissance, métaphysique, anthropologie, politique, morale, esthétique, autobiographie) ; bigarrure de ses formes (aphorisme, anecdote, maxime, remarque, citation, note érudite, essai) ; bigarrure de ses tonalités (tour à tour sarcastique ou sérieuse, docte ou familière, polémique ou poétique) ; intensité variable de ses rythmes d’écriture etc. Le Zibaldone apparaît donc tout d’abord comme un flux discontinu et disparate de pensée. Cependant, Leopardi n’entend pas y exposer une rhapsodie de vérités isolées et fragmentaires mais une véritable philosophie, un authentique système philosophique. « Il mio sistema » : « mon système se fonde sur un scepticisme raisonné », « mon système ne se fonde pas sur le christianisme mais s’accorde avec lui », « mon système ne détruit pas l’absolu mais le multiplie » etc. La philosophie de Leopardi se place sous le signe d’une assomption répétée et explicite de la systématicité : « il n’existe pas de philosophe véritable sans système ». Affronter la question du système revient alors pour lui à affronter la question de l’ordre. Il ne s’agit pas d’une simple velléité mais d’une exigence aussi bien méthodologique qu’ontologique. Manquer d’esprit de système c’est manquer d’ordre, et c’est surtout manquer l’essence même du réel, de la nature en tant que totalité , une nature qu’il ne saurait concevoir autrement, elle aussi, que comme un système et comme un ordre. Quel est donc l’ordre du système léopardien ? Et dans quelle mesure celui-ci épouse-t-il l’ordre du système de la nature ? Quel est leur fondement commun ? Répondre à ces questions revient à parcourir l’ensemble du manuscrit et à montrer en quoi cette totalité mouvante, ouverte et réticulaire qu’est le Zibaldone est le seul lieu à même d’accueillir une pensée placée devant l’urgence de statuer sur les guises de l’existence et de la contradiction. / The Zibaldone is Giacomo Leopardi’s (1798-1837) famous diary of thoughts. The young philologist and poet recorded, for almost fifteen years (1817-1832) and in over more than 4,500 pages, thoughts that he calls "of varied philosophy and fine literature." And, indeed, it is its variety and even the most striking variegation which characterise this monumental magasin d’écriture: the variegation of its subject matters (theory of knowledge, metaphysics, anthropology, politics, morals, aesthetics, autobiography); the variegation of its forms (aphorism, anecdote, maxim, observation, quotation, scholarly notes, essay); the variegation of its tones (sarcastic or serious, learned or familiar, polemical or poetic); the variable intensity of its writing rhythms and so forth. So the Zibaldone appears as a discontinuous and disparate stream of thought. However, Leopardi does not mean to put forward a rhapsody of isolated and fragmentary truths but a true philosophy, a genuine philosophical system. "Il mio sistema": "my system is based on a well-argued scepticism", "my system is not based on Christianism but is compatible with it", "my system does not destroy the absolute but multiplies it", etc. Leopardi’s philosophy is placed under the sign of a repeated and explicit assumption of systematicity: "there is no true philosopher without a system." For him confronting the question of the system means confronting the question of order. It is not about a simple inclination but about a methodological as well as an ontological requirement. Lacking the spirit of a system is lacking order, and it’s above all lacking the essence of reality itself, the essence of nature as a totality, a nature he cannot conceive otherwise than as a system and an order. So what is the order of the leopardian system? And to what extent does it fit in with the order of the system of nature? What is their common foundation? Answering these questions means browsing through the whole manuscript to show to what extent this moving, open and reticular totality which is the Zibaldone is the only suitable place to receive a thought placed in front of the urgency to pronounce a judgment on the modes of existence and contradiction.

Thème central des débats du XVIIIe siècle sur les fondements de la sociabilité humaine et sur les sources du Moi, la compassion est aussi l’un des sentiments les plus analysés par Leopardi dans son journal philosophique, le Zibaldone. Or, plus que tout autre siècle ou tradition, le XVIIIe siècle marque de son empreinte l’étude léopardienne des passions humaines. La doctrine de la compassion de Leopardi subit-elle aussi cette influence ? Quelle place occupe Leopardi dans l’histoire moderne des théories philosophiques de la compassion ? Se situe-t-il du côté des défenseurs de la compassion, exemplairement représentés par Rousseau, ou du côté de ses nombreux adversaires ? Après un premier chapitre introductif sur le contexte où prend forme le nouveau paradigme moral et lexical du XVIIIe siècle, cette recherche aborde les grandes questions rencontrées par Leopardi dans son analyse de la compassion : la nature énigmatique de ce sentiment ; ses principes et ses composantes ; les conditions psycho-physiques des différentes catégories de personnes qui sont prédisposées ou non à éprouver ce sentiment ; les objets « pitoyables » ainsi que les états d’âme et les moments de la vie qui favorisent davantage l’apparition de ce sentiment. Enfin, le dernier chapitre ouvre une perspective sur la dernière forme de compassion envisagée par Leopardi : la compassion universelle. Ce travail souhaite ainsi souligner les nuances de la théorie et de l’expérience du sentiment de la compassion chez Leopardi, en montrant la complexité d’une analyse toujours en tension entre anthropologie et morale, ontologie et phénoménologie, philosophie et poésie. / Compassion, at the center of the Enlightenment debate on the fundamentals of sociability and human nature, is perhaps one of the most analyzed feelings in Leopardi’s Zibaldone. Enlightenment contributed, more than any other tradition, to the shaping of Leopardi’s thought, and surely contributed to his interest in passions and human nature. Hence, can we say that it also influenced his examination of compassion ? What is the place of Leopardi within the modern history of the philosophical theories of compassion ? Does he stand with its defenders, whose main champion is Rousseau, or rather with its many opponents ?After an introductory chapter outlining the context in which the new moral and lexical paradigm of the Enlightenment develops, this study explores the topics examined by Leopardi in his analysis of compassion : the enigmatic nature of this feeling, its principles and elements ; the psychophysical conditions of different categories of people who are predisposed, in different degrees, to feel compassion ; the objects that move compassion ; the different moods and stages of life in which one is more inclined to compassion. Finally, the last chapter presents the ultimate form of compassion in Leopardi : the universal compassion. The main goal of this research is therefore to illustrate the diverse facets of the theory and experience of compassion in Leopardi, and to show the complexity of his analysis, which is constantly in between anthropology and morals, ontology and phenomenology, philosophy and poetry. / Al centro del dibattito illuministico sui fondamenti della sociabilità e della natura umana, la compassione è forse uno dei sentimenti più analizzati nello Zibaldone di Leopardi. Più di ogni altro secolo e di ogni altra tradizione, quella illuministica ha contribuito alla formazione del pensiero di Leopardi, influenzandone soprattutto l’interesse verso le passioni e la natura umana. Si può dire che questa tradizione abbia inciso anche sull’analisi leopardiana della compassione ? Qual è il posto di Leopardi nella storia moderna delle teorie filosofiche della compassione ? Si schiera con i suoi difensori, di cui il rappresentante principale è Rousseau, o con i suoi numerosi avversari ?Dopo un primo capitolo introduttivo sul contesto in cui prende forma il nuovo paradigma morale e lessicale dell’illuminismo, questa ricerca affronta le tematiche incontrate da Leopardi nella sua analisi della compassione : dalla natura enigmatica di questo sentimento ai princìpi e componenti ; dalle condizioni psicofisiche delle diverse categorie di persone che sono più o meno predisposte a provare compassione, agli oggetti “compassionevoli” ; dagli stati d’animo ai momenti della vita in cui si è più inclini a provare questo sentimento. Infine, l’ultimo capitolo offre uno scorcio sull’ultima forma di compassione leopardiana : la compassione universale. Questo lavoro intende così mettere in luce le numerose sfaccettature della teoria e dell’esperienza della compassione in Leopardi, mostrando la complessità di un’analisi sempre in tensione tra antropologia e morale, ontologia e fenomenologia, filosofia e poesia.