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Genesis 2023: The Draft and its Environs
Essays

On a Sketch of the Gulf of Naples. Considerations on the Mythological System of Ugo Foscolo’s Inni alle Grazie

Daniela Shalom Vagata
p. 37-68

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the creative process of the composition of Ugo Foscolo’s fragmentary and unfinished Inni alle Grazie, evoking the idea that all the myths and the stories inherent to the poem are connected to each other within the different editorial stages of the poem. My analysis considers a drawing by Foscolo concerning the Gulf of Naples, arguing that the sketch offers the possibility to investigate Foscolo’s reinvention of the myth of the Erinyes and Galatea as well as the references to Vergil in the hymns. The findings demonstrate that Foscolo’s fragments of Inni alle Grazie can be considered not only in their diachronicity as a progressive transformation of the text, but also in their synchronicity as a network of myths and stories that expand similarly to concentric circles on the water and which are resistant to closure. Furthermore, the paper highlights the strong bond between Foscolo’s Dissertation on an Ancient Hymn to the Graces and the Temples of Graces at Woburn Abbey where Canova’s sculpture of Three Graces was displayed.

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le Grazie, le mie care Grazie
(A Silvio Pellico, East-Mousley 30 settembre 1818)

  • 1 [The Graces, my dear Graces] (Foscolo 1970, 387); [And I stir in my soul, I again stir in my soul, (...)

E friggo, rifriggo, smacero, tormento in mille modi ogni verso fra me; poi li copio
(A Quirina Mocenni Magiotti, Hottingen 14 febbraio 1816)
1

  • 2 A translation in English of Le Grazie has been made by Jonathan A. Needham (Foscolo 2013). Needham’ (...)
  • 3 Francesco Pagliai’s papers are kept at the Archive of Accademia della Crusca. The prospect is conta (...)
  • 4 In Italian the word ‘quadernone’ means ‘oversized notebook’.
  • 5 See also Foscolo (1994, 121–125, 612–636).
  • 6 The whole catalogue has been reprinted and translated in Italian, see Bruni (2012). Additionally on (...)
  • 7 Rejecting Scotti and Pagliai’s chronological hypothesis, Christian Del Vento believes that Foscolo (...)

1It is univocally recognised that multiple and fragmentary texts of Ugo Foscolo’s Inni alle Grazie pose intricate but fascinating philological problems to scholars. According to the first volume of Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo, the author initially composed the poem as one hymn (as Prima redazione dell’Inno and Seconda redazione dell’Inno testify), and then set to divide it into three separate hymns, each consecrated to a different deity: Venus, Vesta, and Pallas (Foscolo 1985).2 This phase is identified with the experimental stages of Primi esperimenti del Carme tripartito and Stesure del Carme tripartito, which Francesco Pagliai, in the prospect of an unpublished critical edition of Le Grazie, Editio Maior, calls Stesure concepite in funzione integrativa rispetto al primo tentativo di una redazione del Carme tripartito (y) e proseguite come parti idealmente integranti della redazione del Quaderno (Q) = q1 and Stesure concepite e svolte come parti idealmente integranti la redazione del Quaderno = q2 e q3.3 Quadernone, a title that justifies the oversized dimension of the manuscript,4 identifies the subsequent stage displayed in Edizione Nazionale. Although the editorial stage of Quadernone has traditionally been thought to conclude the work’s experimental phase of dividing the poem into in three hymns, the text transmitted in Quadernone is not definitive: the textual continuity is interrupted several times; Inno III is unfinished; a variety of problems such as the passage of the pastoral episode of Silvani from Inno I to Inno II inside the allegorical episode of Viaggio delle api is not solved. Finally, Versi del rito should be collocated between Seconda redazione dell’Inno, the experimental phase of tripartite Carme and Quadernone. Versi del rito were dedicated to Viceroy Eugenio de Beauharnais, and they were submitted to the authority of Kingdom of Italy to request the nihil obstat for printing on 13 July 1813 (Foscolo 1985, 1135–1141).5 In Edizione Nazionale all the fragments and drafts besides those mentioned above are collected in several thematic sections and arranged according to a diachronic compositional order (Versi del velo, Silvani, Viaggio in Ellade, Viaggio delle Api). The core of all these textual stages is a rite to the Graces: Foscolo imagines a temple and an altar on the hillock of Bellosguardo in Firenze where, acting as a priest, he performs a rite to the Graces together with three Graces’ handmaids, the priestesses of music, of poetry and of dance, with groups of young girls and men from the Reign of Italy. The last phase of the process is represented by the Dissertation on an Ancient Hymn to the Graces, an auto-anthology of the previous verses in the form of prosimetrum published inside the Outline Engravings and Descriptions of the Woburn Abbey Marbles (1822), an illustrative catalogue of the collection of John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford.6 The Sculpture Gallery at Woburn Abbey stored the second version of Antonio Canova’s Three Graces which was placed inside the Temple of Grace, expressly built to display the marble in 1815-1816. The 184 verses inside the Dissertation are the only ones, among the thousands previously composed, published in Foscolo’s lifetime.7

  • 8 See especially Baker (2000), Yarrington (2002), Urbanic (2015), and Yarrington (2021).
  • 9 Even though the base reliefs are described in the Outline, they were posed in the Sculpture Gallery (...)
  • 10 On the division between moral and mystical allegories, see Vagata (2023a, 25–28)
  • 11 Arnaldo Bruni considers the Dissertation’s 184 verses the editio ne varietur of Foscolo’s Inni alle (...)
  • 12 See Foscolo (1985, 974–975) Appunti sulla ragion poetica, [La Venere del Canova e la Venere de’ Med (...)
  • 13 A good example would be Joshua Reynold’s portrait Lady Sarah Bunbury sacrificing to the Graces see (...)

2A few considerations on Foscolo’s Dissertation are necessary. In short, considering Foscolo’s anthological choice of his fragments, his narrative intention to tell the history of human civilization and his apology of tropes and doctrine of double-truth, and also taking into account Alison Yarrington’s hypothesis on the display of the gallery and on the viewing of Canova’s sculpture,8 I am persuaded that the prosimetrum is deeply connected with the symbolism of the Temple of Grace. Indeed, the symbolism of the marbles and engravings is juxtaposed and integrated with the one adopted in the Dissertation. In addition to Canova’s Three Graces, in the Temple of Grace the statues of the two daughters of Duke of Bedford, Lady Georgiana and Lady Luisa, respectively by Thorvaldsen and Chantrey, were exhibited, while in the in the vestibule of the temple two reliefs on Homeric subjects by Chantrey were set, one about Andromache and another about Penelope.9 While the viewing of Canova’s sculpture itself was ritual and exclusive − a private ceremony for the initiates − the symbolism of the temple as well as the display of the sculptures made the place a sanctuary of the feminine virtues personified by the Graces, and alluded to the progress of civilization achieved from the arts. Similarly, the Dissertation tells the history of human civilization bestowed by the Graces conceived as the protectors of the arts, of marriage in its social aspects, of friendship and family. Whilst the practice of viewing Canova’s group through a latticed panel at the door resembles the Verses of Veil included in the Dissertation (Foscolo’s allegory of a veil that protects the three Graces from the arrows of Amore, the ardour of desires and the tumults of human passions), the ritual elements of experiencing the space of the temple and of viewing the marble of Three Graces create a connection with Foscolo’s invention of the rite to the Graces represented in the previous editorial stages of the hymns. The verses within the Dissertation are described as fragments from an ancient hymn and a contemporary one, while the prose alludes to the division of allegories into moral and mystical: if moral allegories have a didactic and social purpose “for the improvement and perfection of social life” (Foscolo 1985, 1101),10 the mystical are intended as “vehicles for consecrating and preserving fabulous traditions and rites of worship” (1122) and resemble and, at the same time, enhance the ritual practice designed to be performed in the Temple of Graces. Therefore, it can be said that the rite to the Graces described in the hymns survives in the sculpture’s setting conceived as a sanctuary of the Graces. Furthermore, the ritual element strengthens the connection between the Dissertation and the previous editorial stages of Le Grazie where the rite to the Graces is central. As such, this corroborates Arnaldo Bruni’s philological hypothesis that considers the Dissertation the text of Le Grazie.11 Furthermore, the experience of viewing the sculpture is connected to the motif of the statue coming into life, not only as it is described in ekphrasis (for instance the one of Foscolo on Canova’s Venere italica written at the very beginning of the composition of Inni alle Grazie),12 but also as it was represented in the arts, for example in the 18th century paintings on noblewomen sacrificing to Gods or Goddesses.13 Overall, the Dissertation proves that the fine arts and poetry are strongly intertwined: it reaffirms Foscolo’s hymns as poetry on the arts, and opens up the reading of a text as a “piece of art” by integrating the viewing of Canova’s sculpture and the entire Gallery.

  • 14 An affinity can be observed with the philology of drama and performing arts in which the text is “o (...)
  • 15 “But – The Graces (although almost every Greek and Latin author has felt it to be a kind of religio (...)

3To return to the main focus of this contribution, in accordance with the critical hypothesis of Michele Barbi, endorsed by Francesco Pagliai and Mario Scotti, Inni alle Grazie is a “work in progress”, of which fragments, drafts and editorial stages should be recognised of equal importance and without hierarchy. In this situation, it is noticeable that different compositional phases combine in multiple stories and identities, and reveal a dynamic, polymorphous and protean nature.14 Therefore, the “system of myths” can be used as a suitable concept to describe Inni alle Grazie as a whole. The idea of “system” is implied in the Dissertation through allusions to the novelty of Foscolo’s mythology of the three Graces and to the lack of a mythological tradition of the Graces, which legitimize the mythopoeia itself,15 while the term “system” occurs in Del disegno osservazioni destinate alla prima nota dell’Inno primo, inside Appunti sulla ragion poetica delle Grazie, a series of notes designed to illustrate the poem:

Le Grazie, secondo il sistema poetico dell’autore sono Deità intermedie fra il cielo e la terra, e ricevono da’ numi quei doni ch’esse vanno poi dispensando a’ mortali. Secondo il suo sistema storico le Deità diffusero i loro benefici più particolarmente alla Grecia antica dove esse ebbero l’origine, e all’Italia dov’hanno trasferita la loro sede. Finalmente secondo le sue idee metafisiche, la grazia è una dilicata armonia […]. Questi tre sistemi poetico, storico, e metafisico, costituiscono la macchina del carme che è tutto allegorico

[The Graces, according to the author’s poetic system, are intermediate deities between heaven and earth, and receive from the gods those gifts that then dispense to mortals. According to his historical system the Deities spread their benefits more particularly to ancient Greece where they had their origin, and to Italy where they move their location. Finally according to his metaphysical ideas, grace is a delicate harmony […]. These three systems, poetic, historical and metaphysical, constitute the machine of the poem engine which is entirely allegorical]

(Foscolo 1985, 966–967)

  • 16 For the theoretical assumptions on Foscolo’s mythopoeia, see Vagata (2023a, 12–34).
  • 17 See Pasquini (1995) and Del Vento (2023, 179–211). Several myths can be compared to an underground (...)

4Foscolo classifies three different types of systems: poetic, historical and metaphysical, in order to prove myths’ allegorical meaning. Yet, the term “system” is situated beyond the different editorial stages of the poem. Inherent to the whole mythopoeia on Graces, the word “system” underlines the syncretic quality of myths and their belonging to a network. Upon closer inspection, the process of the mythological elaboration should be described as stories that expand in endless concentric circles along their lyrical progression. In this process the three Graces are associated to other elements and characters such as Venus, Nature, Diana, the heavenly veil, Orpheus, Tiresias, all involved in the poem according to the emphasis placed on a specific aspect of their myths.16 Although many myths are constant throughout the whole poetic process, they tend to adapt to Foscolo’s biography and to the historical circumstances and, therefore, take on allegorical meaning depending on these circumstances.17 However, all of the myths contribute to Foscolo’s own reinterpretation of three Graces who embody the idea of civilization through the arts.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Photograph of Ugo Foscolo’s sketch of the Gulf of Naples, on f. 8v (p. 16) of his Quandernone, Manoscritti foscoliani – Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi, Livorno. Rendered with higher contrast and sharpness to emphasize the sketch.

Image reproduced with permission from the copyright holder.

  • 18 On the sketch see Cataudella (1980, 3–4) and Foscolo (1985, 290–291).
  • 19 For the description see Foscolo (1985, 291–319).
  • 20 See also Del Vento (2023, 231). It must be noted that the index was written in reverse: p. 15 (f. 8(...)

5Sketches, notes and indexes listed across the workflow of Inni alle Grazie and transmitted in the hymns’ manuscripts can be considered as an integral part of the system. The case of a sketch of the Gulf of Naples transmitted in Quandernone is particularly noticeable.18 Before elaborating, however, brief preface on the manuscript materiality is necessary. Quadernone is a large notebook kept at the Biblioteca Labronica in Livorno.19 It consists of only 8 folii: ff. 1r-4v, 5v (pp. 1-8, 10) include the so called editorial stage of Quadernone (Inno primo, Inno secondo, Inno terzo); ff. 6v, 7v-8r (pp. 12, 14-15) document some indexes (Sommari); and on f. 8v (p. 16) we find the sketch (see Fig. 1). All the other pages are either blank or contain notes by Quirina Mocenni Magiotti and Enrico Mayer. The text in the notebook displays a notable difference in the ink and in the ductus between the writing of the Inno primo on the one hand, and the Inno secondo and the Inno terzo on the other. The same marked difference is present in their respective indexes, and in the autograph variants in the index of the Inno primo.20 Foscolo’s sketch outlines the contours of Gulf of Naples, highlighting the volcano Vesuvius, the River Sebeto, the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum (called Pompejana and Ercolana), Posillipo, and Procida. However, the sketch does not correspond to the real geomorphism of the places. As far as we know, Foscolo never went to Rome or Napoli. Although the editorial stage of Quadernone does not yet include direct references to Napoli and its gulf, the sketch makes indirect references to places and myths connected with Naples in other compositional phases. This allows for the hypothesis that the different attributes of gods are used and re-used as a narrative force. The sketch can be assimilated to a vessel of elements, the symbolism of which is conferred by Foscolo depending on the story he wanted to recount. In detail, the references to Gulf of Naples belong to a network of myths that range from the representation of Erinyes to the presence of Vergil and Galatea, and all of them contribute to creating the stories of the civilizing Graces.

  • 21 See for instance Niccolini’s Lezioni di mitologia a uso degli antichi, Lezione quarantesi-masettima (...)

6First of all, one must consider the connection between Mount Vesuvius and the Erinyes, the Greek goddesses of war, violence and vengeance.21 At vv. 1-2 of the fragment entitled Erinne I, in Stesure del Carme tripartito, the Furies are told to be the cause of the eruption of Etna and Vesuvius:

Vagano, come quando esce un’Erinne Di Tenaro, infiammando Etna e Vesevo

[Wander, like when an Eryn leaves Cape Tainaron, causing fire in Etna and Vesuvius]

(Foscolo 1985, 752)

7The two lines must be interpreted through the lens of the representation of the Napoleonic wars, in particular, as suggested in the Edizione Nazionale, Prospetto cronologico, in the light of an excerpt from Giornale del Dipartimento dell’Arno, where the eruption of Vesuvius is compared to the devastation caused by the Napoleonic wars, clearly intertwining the symbolism of Erinyes with the fire and destruction caused by natural phenomena such as volcanoes:

Nel mezzo di una bella notte d’agosto, Smolensk presentava a’ Francesi lo spettacolo che offre agli abitanti di Napoli una eruzione del Vesuvio.

[In the middle of a clear night in August, Smolensk presents the French with the same sight that an eruption of Vesuvius offers to the inhabitants of Naples.]

(Foscolo 1985, 1198)

  • 22 For example, at vv. 40-41: “Ardon l’Erinni di lor man le antique / Selve, e le moli opra di regi” [ (...)

8At first, the motif of Erinyes as icon of war appears in the initial stage of Inni alle Grazie, in particular in Prima redazione dell’Inno, Al sereno del monte. Socrate.22However, the full meaning of the myth as representation of desertification is revealed by its bond with the myth of Phaeton, as recounted, for instance, in Principio di un sommario per l’Inno secondo e Appunti su Vesta ed Erinni:

Irata infiammò all’ambizione Fetonte figlio d’Iperione, facendogli con meritate lodi credere che fosse figlio del Sole; e lo addusse alla volta del cielo; ne scese seco ed accese una immensa guerra ne l’Etruria; e salì ed infiammò il Cielo, e Saturno ingannato credeva che il Sole che allora dorava le terre in Oriente e le piante ecc.; Godeva intanto la superba; e già sommerse il fiume, e gittò la face ardente del Cielo nel paese; tutti gli dei dell’Italia aprirono i monti; l’Eridano si scosse, quindi dopo quel tempo scorre ad allagarle sempre quelle terre quasi per timore dell’incendio.

  • 23 An enemy of Graces, probably an Eryn.

[Wrathful23 inflamed Phaethon son of Hyperion with ambition, making him believe with deserved praises that he was the son of the Sun; and she led him to the vault of heaven; she came down with him and started an immense war in Etruria; and he ascended and set the Sky on fire, and Saturn, deceived, believed that the Sun which at that time gilded the lands in the East and the plants etc.; meanwhile the arrogant was enjoying; and already submerged the river, and cast the fiery face of Heaven into the land; all the gods of Italy ruptured the mountains; Eridanus shook, then after that time it always flows to flood those lands almost out of fear of fire.]

  • 24 The entire passage implies the myth of Phaeton in Ovid’s Metamorphoses II, vv . 19339.

(Foscolo 1985, 991)24

  • 25 For further information on the topic, see Vagata (2024, 292–293).
  • 26 In the original, the passage reads: ‘Ed era quasi spento [il fuoco di Vesta] oggi che arse il core (...)
  • 27 See Sommari e note, [Principio di un sommario per l’Inno secondo e appunti su Vesta ed Erinni] in F (...)
  • 28 See Sommari e note, [Sommario del Quadernone] in Foscolo (1985, 996 and nn. 110–111). The passage i (...)
  • 29 See Abbozzi [Arcadia] in Foscolo (1985, 934), and [La terra in signoria d’Amore] (936). The conditi (...)
  • 30 See Erinne I, V, and Erinne e Fetonte in Foscolo (1985, 752–753, 758–759). For a discussion of Erin (...)

9On the one hand, in a strategy of resemantization, Foscolo connects the myth of Phaeton which primarily symbolises the punishment of hubris with another aspect of its myth, where an inadequate political leader is unable to drive his government chariot.25 And so, when Sommario del Quadernone, Inno Secondo, Parte II mentions that “the fire of Vesta was almost extinguished nowadays that a mortal’s heart burns with avidity; how Moscow burnt”, this ‘ heart’ alludes to Phaeton/Napoleon’s.26 On the other hand, by considering all the occurrences of the myths of Erinyes in Inni alle Grazie, it is clear that Foscolo adapts their myths to represent a variety of narrative situations: they refer to wars in Etruria27 and to barbaric invasions in the Roman time;28 they symbolise the savage conditions of the primitives;29 they allude to the retreat of Grande Armée’s during the Russian campaign as suggested by the references to Scythia (the classical name of Russia), and to the ‘unwept’ (not mourned and unburied) bodies of Italian warriors.30

10To take a further step in this investigation of the icon of Erinyes, one should consider the fragments [Erinne I] and [Erinne III-V], where the myth develops in the horrific picture of bloody colours, nightmares and destruction of aurora borealis, which is placed in the ice and snow either in Greenland or in Island or in the Southern Ocean. Additionally, it can be observed that the icon of desertification represented by Erinyes concerns both ice and fire, as fires in ‘deserts of snow’ are allusive of fires in the frozen and barren steppes of Russian landscape. As an illustration one can read from [Erinni V], vv. 8-22:

Finge perfida pria roseo splendore E lei deluse appellano col vago Nome di Boreale alba le genti.
Quella scorre, e le nuvole in chimere
Orrende, e in imminenti armi contorce
Fiammeggianti; e calar senti per l’aura
Dal muto nembo l’aquile agitate
Che leon veggion nel lor regno angui, e sedenti Leoni, e ulular l’ombre de’ lupi.
Innondati di sangue errano al guardo
Delle città i pianeti, e van raggiando Timidamente per l’aereo caos;
Tosto d’incendio la celeste volta S’infiamma, e sotto quell’infausta luce Rosseggia immensa l’iperborea terra.

[At first the Eryn feigns a perfidious rosy splendour and the deluded people call her by the vague name of aurora borealis. She flows, and she deforms the clouds into horrible chimeras and into looming and flaming armies; and from the silent clouds you feel the agitated eagles go down through the air, which see in the sky lions, snakes, lying lions, and they hear phantoms of wolves howling. Bloody planets flooded make appearance in the cities, and they timidly shine in the aerial chaos; right away the celestial vault is set on fire, and under that inauspicious light the Northern lands reddens immensely.]

  • 31 On Erinne V, see Scotti’s commentary in Foscolo (1987, 62–66, 181–183). For interpreting the word “ (...)

(Foscolo 1985, 757–758)31

  • 32 See Spaggiari (2016, 42–45) and Casini (1983, 155–158).
  • 33 All commentaries track as the scene’s source Antonio Conti’s work, especially Il Globo di Venere, R (...)

11In 18th and 19th centuries, optical phenomena such as aurora borealis were often the subject of scientific and didactic poems, such as, for instance, Ruggero Boscovich’s Dialoghi sull’aurora boreale, Eusebio Sguario’s Dissertazione sopra le aurore boreali, Carlo Noceti’s De iride et aurora boreali carmina […] cum notis Josephi Rogerii Boschovich (1747) and L’iride e l’aurora boreale descritte in verso toscano dal padre Antonio Ambrogi (1755).32 Although Foscolo’s scene can be understood in line with 18-19th century interest in natural phenomena, its association with myth and its horrific taste bring it closer to Alfonso Varano’s Visioni VI and to Antonio Conti’s Il globo di Venere.33

  • 34 In Conti’s Prose e poesie (1739) a translation of a letter on Fata Morgana precedes the treatise on (...)

12In Principio di un sommario per l’Inno secondo e Appunti su Vesta ed Erinni, the myth of Erynes also develops into the imagery of Fata Morgana (Morgan the Fairy), a mirage visible in the Straits of Messina also common in poems on natural phenomena:34

e fu verso l’estate veduta tra il lito di Messina e di Reggio, quasi a fabbricar i Turchi pur per illuderli in terrore; così le Grazie salvarono allora l’Italia, e scendendo dal cielo le seguiano quelle api ch’esse poi nudriano sempre; e che oggi la bella donna [the priestess of poetry] pasce.

[Around Summer she was seen between the shore of Messina and Reggio, almost so as to fabricate Turks just to mislead them into terror; thus the Graces saved in Italy at that time, and coming down from the sky they were followed by those bees which they then always fed; and that today the beautiful woman feeds.]

  • 35 The passage is transmitted in Labr. I, Valenciennes, p. 83. The words “i Turchi” [Turks] is not ent (...)

(Foscolo 1985, 992)35

  • 36 For a description of Fascicolo V, see Foscolo (1985, 353–356) and Pagliai (1966, 188– 191).

13While the passage is ambiguous, Morgan the Fairy clearly appears in a later stage of the composition of the hymns, especially in a group of poetic fragments and indexes belonging to Fascicolo V, a manuscript held in Biblioteca Labronica of Livorno (Labr. I, fasc. V).36 In those fragments the Fairy is connected with the allegorical stories of a bees’ swarm directed from Greece to Italy. During their journey the bees divided in two swarms, one headed to the Tyrrhenian Sea and Tuscany, the other one stopped by Fata Morgana in front of Messina’s and Reggio’s coasts and then directed to Venezia, as reported in Indicazioni del fascicolo V:

p. 10 Giungono le api in Italia seguendo le Muse cacciate da’ Tartari.
p. 11 Nel loro viaggio si dividono le api in due schiere. L’una al canto di Neréo va pel Tirreno, l’altra è arrestata dalla Fata Morgana tra il lito di Messina e di Reggio.
p. 13 L’altra verso la Toscana.
[p. 10 The bees arrive in Italy following the Muses expelled by the Tartars.
p. 11 On their journey the bees divide in two groups. One goes through the Tyrrhenian Sea at Nereo’s song, the other is arrested by Morgan the Fairy between the shore of Messina and Reggio. p. 13 The other toward Tuscany.]

(Foscolo 1985, 999)

  • 37 In Viaggio delle api XXV [Le api alla foce dell’Arno. La Speranza, III], included in Labr. I, fasc. (...)
  • 38 On the fragment see Scotti’s commentary in Foscolo (1987, 114–117, 224–226). At p. 13 groups of ver (...)
  • 39 It should be briefly added that the connection between Morgan the Fairy and epic poems will be late (...)
  • 40 According to Scotti the texts are simultaneous (Foscolo 1985, 353–354). The indications in the seco (...)

14The note from Indicazioni del fascicolo V, p. 13, seems to pertain to the tentative story of bees directed to Adria, in Veneto, as versified in fragments Viaggio delle api, XXV [Le api alla foce dell’Arno. La Speranza, III] (Foscolo 1985, 1057– 1059)37 and XXVIII [Le api alla foce dell’Arno. La Speranza IV] (1062–1065). The latter fragment, Viaggio delle api XXVIII, is constituted by groups of verses transmitted in Fascicolo V, pp. 12 and 13,38 and stands for the celebration of Italian epic poems, in particular by Ariosto, Berni and Tasso.39 Back to the manuscript, beyond the above-mentioned fragment Viaggio delle api XXVIII, at pp. 12-13 of Fascicolo V a draft of a letter dating back February-March 1815 and addressing Mr Bulgari is also transmitted (Foscolo 1965, 358–359). Although it seems difficult to establish the use of same ink and cursus in the fragment, the letter and the textual variants on p. 13,40 as well as the reference to the spoliation of Medici Venus by the French army and the failure to return it in a detached group of verses displayed at the bottom of p. 13 both support a dating close that remains to the writing of the letter to Mr Bulgari: “onde fra l’arti / S’adorasse fra noi, Venere bella / Il simulacro tuo, che depredato / Ne fu dall’armi, e s’altro oggi concesso / Da te non era all’Italo scultore” [so that among the arts may be worshiped by us, your sculpture, beautiful Venus, which was plundered by armies, and if anything else was not granted today by you to the Italian sculptor] (Foscolo 1985, 1064, vv. 50–54). Indeed Medici Venus’ return was decided only by the end of Summer 1815, and the sculpture arrived in Firenze 27th December 1815.

  • 41 For an account of the return of art works, see Mackay Quynn (1945, 445–453).

15To digress briefly, the restoring of the art treasures to the original possessors was a delicate operation of negotiations between the French and the Allied countries: it took several years and had to overcome French resistance. In broad terms, it is good to recall that there was no mention or documents of provision for the confiscated art objects in the armistice signed in May/June 1814, nor in the Charter promulgated by King Louis XVIII after Napoleon’s abdication at Fontainebleau. To the contrary, the French tried to insert a clause in the Convention of July 1815 that would allow them to preserve the integrity of their museums and libraries. Still, some progress was gradually made: already in 1814, King Louis XVIII promised the return of treasures that had not yet been displayed in Louvre or Tuileries; in the Spring of 1814 archives and documents emanated from the Papal states were returned; between September and December 1814 Austria and Prussia negotiated and had the confiscated objects partially returned. The Hundred Days interrupted the negotiations, and they were only reopened in July 1815. That July, Prussia had the assets shipped and agents from Italian states started to arrive in Paris; in September 1815 Prussia, Austria, Vienna, England agreed on the return of the objects.41 To summarize: after Napoleon’s abdication and his exile in Elba, there was an expectation that the stolen works (and, particularly, the Tuscan art works and Medici Venus) would be returned, but those hopes were soon dashed, and it was only in late 1815 that effective measures were taken to bring the works back, thanks to the efforts made by Giovanni Degli Alessandri, Thomas Henry Karcher and Pietro Benvenuti.

  • 42 Medici Venus left Paris between September/October 1815 and returned in Firenze 27th December 2015, (...)
  • 43 At v. 38 Foscolo previously wrote “forse sol col pianto?” [perhaps only with tears?].

16In Foscolo’s lines of Viaggio delle api XXVIII the confiscation of Medici Venus provides an opportunity to praise Canova’s Venere italica,42, but the motif of the seized sculpture is also included in two other drafts: in Viaggio delle api XXVI, [La speranza a Firenze, I], vv. 6-8 (Foscolo 1985, 1059) transmitted in Labr. I, fasc. VII, p. 16, and in Viaggio delle api XXVII, [La speranza a Firenze II], vv. 30-32, 3538 (1061–1062), transmitted in Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 11, p.1. In these drafts the lines “Che a noi dal brando fu rapita, e noi / Riaverla speriam sol coi lamenti” [that the sculpture of Medici Venere was stolen from us with violence, and we only hope to have it back with moans] highlight the contrast between the violence of the French spoliation and the ineptitude of returning the sculpture, and let a sense of disillusionment to shine through (Viaggio delle api XXVI, vv. 7-8, repeated in Viaggio delle api XXVII, vv. 37-38).43 These references could help us fix a terminus ante quem for the composition of the fragments, as the agreement to return the Tuscan treasures was reached in August/September 1815. Moreover, the image of the Italians lamenting the stolen sculpture leads me lean toward an even earlier dating, when there was a general disillusionment about seeing the object returned. The references additionally support the hypothesis of a connection and a proximity of the elaboration of some fragments included in Fascicolo V, fasc. VII and Ins. 12.

  • 44 Propertius wrote “Iuppiter” instead of “Alecto”: “Omnia praebebant somnos: sed Iuppiter unus / decr (...)
  • 45 In Propertius: “Nam Vesta, Iliacae felix tutela favillae” (Propertius 1990, v. 69).
  • 46 Unlike Propertius, who saw Tarpeia as the embodiment of guilty love, Livius considered her to be gu (...)
  • 47 Already in Stesure del Carme tripartito, [Belle vergini, addio III], vv. 12-20, Foscolo’s celebrati (...)
  • 48 In Propertius the line reads “fistula poturas ire iubebat ouis” (Propertius 1990, v. 6).
  • 49 See, for instance, Quadernone, Inno I, vv. 181-183: “ei sul meriggio / Fa sua casa un frascato, e a (...)
  • 50 In particular Fabre’s collection is mentioned in [Abbozzi di una dedica alla contessa D’Albany II] (...)
  • 51 In particular in Silvani VII, [Valle delle donne IV] (Foscolo 1985, vv. 1-9, and 12-19), Silvani VI (...)
  • 52 Namely [Pittura] (Foscolo 1985, 706), [Onore e libertà. Belle arti] (707, vv. 18–20), [Fabre. Danza (...)
  • 53 Briefly, with the exception of [Arti derivanti dall’Armonia II], which is the latest and final draf (...)
  • 54 The fragment is transmitted in Naz. Fi. III, A, pp. 31, 29, and it consists of a copy of Andrea Cal (...)
  • 55 The fragment is transmitted in Labr. I, fasc. VII, pp. 2-3. Lines 51-63 are cancelled. On the attem (...)
  • 56 Another fragment, Viaggio delle api I [Anacreonte. Teocrito. Petrarca] (Foscolo 1985, 1014–1015, vv (...)

17The manuscript of Fascicolo V is conceived as an index of subjects arranged in a narrative order. The manuscript also contains few verses from Propertius’ Elegy IV, 4, readapted in the new context of Inni alle Grazie: “Omnia praebebant somnos, sed Alecto / Decrevit poenis invigilare” (Fascicolo V, p.2, Foscolo 1985, 998),44 and “Vesta Ausoniae felix tutela favillae” (Fascicolo V, p.6, Foscolo 1985, 999).45 Propertius’ Elegy IV, 4 was known as Tarpeia Elegy and as one of the Roman Elegies. Tarpeia unfolds a myth of punishment as it recounts the story of a Vestal virgin, Tarpeia, who, in love with a Sabine captain, betrayed the Romans and was punished with her life as a result.46 It is worth noting that the frequent occurrence of Rome as a subject in Fascicolo V seems to suggest that Foscolo remembered the elegy while he was composing verses that dealt with the ancient Roman civilization.47 Moreover, Foscolo reused other verses from Propertius’ Elegy IV as well. Inside Lettera a Fabre, a text included in Abbozzi di prefazione al libro II of his translation of Iliad (1813-1814) and probably written between September and November 1814 (Foscolo 1961, I lxxiii–lxxiv), Foscolo illustrates lines 5-7 of Propertius’ elegy as a way to compare poetry and painting, and to describe Francois-Xavier Fabre’s landscape paintings and his painting collection: “Silvani ramosa domus quo dulcis ab aestu / Fistula poturas ire jubebat oves” (I 241).48 In a letter to Countess D’Albany Foscolo called the introductory letter “miei sogni sulle arti” [my dreams on the arts] (Foscolo 1965, 302). Moreover, as others have pointed out before me, Propertius’ verses have inspired the motif of Silvanus’ leafy refuge and his melodious pipes that direct his sheep to drink in the homonymous episode in Inni alle Grazie.49 Inside Inni alle Grazie, Fabre and his collection are mentioned in Abbozzi di una dedica alla contessa D’Albany I-III, three drafts of a dedication of the hymns to Countess D’Albany (Foscolo 1985, 976–980),50 and in different groups of verses belonging to the section Silvani, particularly in Silvani VII, VIII, XI, where the painter is imagined walking toward Fiesole.51 Fabre is not always named, but he can be identified by the expression “artefice elegante” [elegant artist] variously recurring in a previous group of fragments taken from Primi esperimenti del Carme tripartito and concerning painting.52 Additionally, another small group of fragments from Stesure del Carme tripartito, in particular [Versi dell’Armonia: nuovi motivi per la chiusa dell’Inno primo] and [Arti derivanti dall’Armonia I and II] (Foscolo 1985, 772–778), alludes to the landscape painting as one of the arts given to mankind by three Graces, and suggests that landscape painting inspires peace: “Mirò il fonte e il boschetto, udì gli augelli / Pinti, e godea della pace de’ campi” [gazed upon springs and forests, /and heard the painted birds, / and enjoyed the peace of fields] (Arti derivanti dall’Armoria I Foscolo 1985, 774 vv. 14–15; translation from Foscolo 2013, 79).53 The motif of ‘inspiring peace’ also resounds in Lettera a Fabre, and in few verses regarding the celebration of Teocritus and the song of Silvani in Silvani XIV, [Primo tentativo di inserimento dei versi dei Silvani, o del Boccaccio, nel secondo inno] “e qui verdeggia / Qual fu più cara pianta all’agnellette / Del siculo pastor; onde il tranquillo / Mortal che spaziando entro quegli orti / Cantar ode i Silvani, e il canto impara, / Invoglia altrui di pace” [and here it grows green the plant was dearer to the little lambs owned by the Sicilian shepherd; wherefore the quiet Mortal who, wandering within those gardens, hears the Sylvans sing, and learns the song, enticing others to have peace] (Foscolo 1985, 928, vv. 15–20).54 Part of the fragments was reproduced with few variations in Viaggio delle api IX, [Fiori. Invocazione a Polinnia. Petrarca. Anacreonte. Tasso. Poesia pastorale] (1027, vv. 53–59).55 Finally, it must be said that both Silvani XIV and Viaggio delle api IX constitute the attempt to combine the bucolic episode of Silvano with the allegorical story of the journey of bees, within the frame of a celebration of pastoral poetry.56 The episode of Silvani itself belongs to the bucolic genre celebrated at the initial phases of composition of Viaggio delle api, through the representation of a gallery of poets such as Anacreonte, Teocrito and Tasso. To conclude this small excursion on the topic of Fascicolo V, the presence of the verses from Propertius’ Elegy IV in the manuscript and in Lettera a Fabre does not represent a crucial evidence of a precise dating of groups of fragments, nevertheless it intersects with Foscolo’s interest for landscape painting and pastoral poetry expressed in the fragments of Silvani and Viaggio delle api and centred in the figure of François-Xavier Fabre. All of this leads me suppose a common proximity of composition which can be also corroborated by the reference to seized Medici Venus and the draft of letter to Bulgari.

  • 57 For a discussion of Vergil’s presence in Foscolo’s work, see esp. Longoni (2018b).

18Returning to the main topic of this essay, other groups of images, scenes and stories interweaving with the sketch of Gulf of Naples concern the verses recalling Vergil and Galatea. As for Vergil, in Primi esperimenti del Carme tripartito, Principio dell’Inno terzo, vv. 21-27 the Roman poet is evoked together with Orpheus:57

Te pur da’ generosi ozi e dall’urna
Di Partenope udiam, gloria del Mincio,
Te che piangevi Orfeo poiché
Te che Orfeo dall’Eliso ove t’intese
Lamentar l’ombra d’Euridice diede A te il suo lauro e disse: ognun t’adori Re de’ versi divini.

[You too, glory of Mincio, we hear from generous leisure time and the Neapolitan urn, you who wept for Orpheus because you that Orpheus from Elysium, where he heard you lament the shadow of Eurydice, gave you his laurel and said: everyone adores you King of heavenly verses.]

(Foscolo 1985, 712)

19The fragment invokes a canon of poets conceived as models for Inni alle Grazie (the mythical Linus joins Homer, Lucretius, Catullus and Vergil) and exposes an experimental phase of the composition that took place after the writing of the Seconda redazione dell’Inno. This phase shows a sort of development of the episode which will be later abandoned because Foscolo goes back in Quadernone to the canon previously expressed in the singular hymn. In both Seconda redazione dell’Inno (691–691, vv. 7–21) and Quadernone, Inno III (821–822, vv. 4– 19), Foscolo conceives of a canon of mythical, Greek and Roman poets, exemplified by Amphion, Pindar and Catullus. Despite the absence of Vergil in the canon, the Latin poet and the references to his work can be traced either in the prose or in the verses of the hymns. For instance, Vergil’s Bucolics are recalled as a model of lyrical poems containing moral allegories in Abbozzi sulla ragion poetica, as can be read in a passage of [Della ragion poetica ossia dello «stile»: osservazioni concepite come introduzione del Carme e quindi destinate alla prima nota dell’Inno terzo]:

e per citare un maestro più autorevole a’ critici tale è il carme da Virgilio intitolato Sileno, dove con nuove vivissime immagini espose il sistema epicureo nel canto del vecchio dio, e nelle favole di Pasifae, e di Tereo le passioni sfrenate che turbano la tranquillità dell’animo, unico scopo della filosofia d’Epicuro. Il velo mirabile di quest’ecloga oscuro a tutti i professori di letteratura fu levato per la prima volta sapientemente da l’Abate Antonio Conti, filosofo che se venisse letto farebbe vergognare solennemente la moltitudine de’ poeti, i quali dirigendo il loro ingegno a un segno umile e vano, avviliscono sé medesimi e l’arte, e la rendono inutile

[and to cite a more authoritative master for critics, such is the poem entitled Silenus by Vergil, where with new and very vivid images he exposed the Epicurean system in the song of the old god, and in the fables of Pasiphae and Thereus the uncontrolled passions that disturb the tranquillity of soul, the sole aim of Epicurus’ philosophy. The extraordinary veil of this eclogue, obscure to all professors of literature, was wisely lifted for the first time by the Abbot Antonio Conti, a philosopher who, if it were read, would solemnly shame the multitude of poets, who, directing their genius to a humble and vain expression, degrade themselves and art, making it useless]

  • 58 It is clear that Foscolo adopted Antonio Conti’s critical perspective. The concept is proposed agai (...)

(959)58

  • 59 See also Vagata (2023b, 236).
  • 60 By several scholars, Poliziano’s work is traced as one of the hymns’ sources: see Pomilio (1953), D (...)
  • 61 See Prima redazione dell’Inno, [Sonatrice seconda sacerdotessa I], vv. 41-47 (Foscolo 1985, 650). S (...)
  • 62 The icon of Orpheus representing the herald of civilization, knowledge and wisdom (‘sapienza umana’ (...)
  • 63 See also Foscolo (1985, 712, vv. 28–36). There is allusion to the grief for Orpheus in Versi del ve (...)
  • 64 The story is further recounted in Versi del velo XII [Armonia dal velo II] (Foscolo 1985, 856–857). (...)
  • 65 The same idea appears in Sommario del Quadernone, Inno II, Parte III, nn. 9-10 (Foscolo 1985, 997), (...)
  • 66 Interconnections between Galatea, Proserpina and Eurydice as dancers and personifications of three (...)

20Vergil’s Georgics are echoed in the above-mentioned Silvani’s song,59 and are present either in the hymns’ figurative inter-text either through the re-use of Echo’s myth and the one of Orpheus, or the allusions to Giovanni Rucellai’s didactic poem Le Api (which is based on the fourth book of Vergil’s eclogue). In her preface on Poliziano’s Fabula di Orfeo, Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti distinguishes the myth of Orpheus as icon of harmony and exemplum of civilizing poet and musician who personifies the empathy with nature, from the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (Tissoni Benvenuti 1986, 71–74).60 Both myths were reused by Foscolo. On the one hand the myth of Orpheus is suggested through the association with the priestess of music in the rite to the Graces as winds obey to her,61 and it symbolises the idea of civilization in Stesure del carme tripartito, [Armonia discesa sulle Grazie], vv. 13-18 “onde a più mite / Vita condur l’umana plebe” [so that the human plebs live a gentler life] (Foscolo 1985, 736, vv. 15–16).62 On the other hand the hint to Orpheus and Eurydice is described as an handover between the mythical poet and Vergil: Orpheus’ lyre is given to the Latin poet. The story is evoked in the above-mentioned fragment [Principio dell’inno terzo],63 and in Versi del velo XII [Armonia effusa dal velo I], a fragment where the sound produced by Orpheus’ lyre is compared to the one of the Graces’ veil (“E delle Grazie il vel diede un soave / Suon qual di arpa che mormora da lunge. / […] Tal era forse il lamentar che diede / D’Orfeo la lira” [And the veil of the Graces gave a sweet sound similar to the one of a harp that murmurs from afar. […] Such was perhaps the lament that gave Orpheus’ lyre] (Foscolo 1985, 855, vv. 1–2, 13–14),64 and it is also told in Sommario del Quadernone, Inno II, Parte Seconda, n. 6, transmitted in Labr. I, Quad., p. 15: “Morte d’Orfeo e lira sonante, e discesa di Orfeo a dar la lira a Virgilio; e questo fu il più bel dono che le Grazie videro dare all’Italia; però che allora sedeano in riva di Lesbo piangendo Orfeo” [Death of Orpheus and sounding lyre, and Orpheus’ descent to give the lyre to Virgil; and this was the most beautiful gift that the Graces saw given to Italy; but then they sat on the shore of Lesbos mourning Orpheus] (994).65 Finally, it is worth mentioning the presence of Eurydice as a dancer and as the embodiment of the Graces’ ideals in Abbozzi della ragion poetica, [Il ballo delle Baccanti I and II] (Foscolo 1985, 939–940), and [Le Grazie e Orfeo] (944–945). The mythical woman, together with Galatea and Proserpina, is a Graces’ companion; similarly to the three priestesses of music, poetry and dance, they do dance, sing and play.66

  • 67 The motif of Galatea dancing does not seem to be Foscolo’s invention: in Pontano’s Lyra XIII, v, 63 (...)

21Galatea is the last myth to be tackled concerning Foscolo’s sketch. First of all, to reconnect to the above, we can trace a kind of insistence on depicting the nymph Galatea as a dancer: together with Persephones and Euridices in the proses of Abbozzi, particularly in [Il ballo delle Baccanti I] “così la [danza] insegnarono le Grazie a Proserpina Euridice e Galatea” [so the Graces taught Proserpina, Euridice and Galatea to dance] (939), and in [Le Grazie e Orfeo] “che [i.e., Persephones, Galatea, Euridices] spirate da loro [i.e., the Graces] cantavano, suonavano, ballavano” [inspired by them, they were playing, singing, dancing](944). In addition, the priestess of dance in the act of dancing seems to be substituted either by Proserpina or Galatea in two drafts of Stesure del Carme tripartito, [Tre donne] “Carolando Proserpina a quel canto / Scorrer facea quell’armonia da tutto / Il suo bel corpo, e uno sguardo un riso […] / Spiran gli occhi venustà improvvisa; / Galatea danzando” [dancing Proserpina at that song, all the harmony of sound flows from her beautiful body, and a glance a smile […] eyes send unexpected beauty; Galatea dancing](721, vv. 47–52).67Finally, Abbozzi, [Ballo delle Baccanti II] includes the only occurrence of Galatea’s myth in relation to Polyphemus, “E Galatea s’accolse con le Ninfe a uscir di mano di Polifemo che la perseguiva con il suo rozzo canto” [And Galatea joined the Nymphs to escape from the hands of Polyphemus who pursued her with his rough song] (939), which is transmitted in Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 3, p. 2. Any reference to Polyphemus’ song is absent.

  • 68 See also Castelli (2018, 17). For a general survey of the myth of Galatea, see Manitta (2007).

22Although the myth of Galatea is traditionally rooted in the Sicilian pastoral mythology, as recounted, for instance, in Boccaccio’s Genealogia deorum gentilium (Boccaccio 1998, 7, XIII) and Ovidius’ (Ovidius 2004, XIII, vv. 738–897),68the nymph is in connection with Napoli in Stesure del Carme tripartito, [Galatea I], vv. 1-5, included in Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 4, p. 2:

Di sue promesse memore discese
Citerea; vide le sue figlie al lido
Di Mergellina, e chiamar Galatea,
Tendea le palme a Galatea. Deh vieni Con la tua conca o nivea Galatea.

[Mindful of her promises Cytherea descended; she saw her daughters at the shore Of Mergellina, and calling Galatea, she tightened her palms to Galatea. Oh snow-white Galatea, come inside your shell]

(Foscolo 1985, 780–781)

  • 69 The Eclogae Piscatoriae are placed in Napoli. Sannazaro’s work was familiar for Foscolo, as proven (...)
  • 70 In the arts an overlapping between Galatea and Venus is common. The overlap is also proved by the r (...)
  • 71 The superiority of Galatea’s whiteness and beauty in relation to other elements is a topos of her d (...)

23The connection between Galatea and Napoli recalls Jacopo Sannazaro’s Eclogae Piscatoriae II, Galatea (“Ostentat pelago pulcherrima Mirgilline”, v. 3),69 and it can be legitimised by the beauty of the place. At lines 4–5 Galatea resembles the traditional representation of Venus arriving in her shell,70 while the fragment presents a variation on the motif of Venus returning to the earth, as Foscolo invokes her to participate in the rite of the Graces. Despite the lack of any explicit reference, a possible location in Parthenope’s City as well as the memory of the myth’s Sicilian background can be found in a group of fragments and indexes related to the episode where Janus’ and Amphitrite’s gifts are bestowed on the Graces on the fourth day after they were born in Viaggio della api XVI, [Rito e memoria dei favi. L’invito di Giano] (Foscolo 1985, 1043, vv. 17–38), Viaggio delle api XVII, [Galatea reca alle Grazie i doni di Giano e di Anfitrite] (1044), and lastly in Viaggio della api XXI, [Seconda sacerdotessa. Il rito a memoria dei favi. Giano e Anfitrite inviano doni alle Grazie] (1049, vv. 43–52).71 While [Viaggio delle api XXI] carries the episode’s last version and it is transmitted by Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 7, p. 1, both [Viaggio delle api XVI] and [XVII] are an earlier stage of the episode’s elaboration and they are transmitted in Labr. I, fasc. VII, pp. 16-17. The fragment [Viaggio delle api XVII] is cancelled. In [Viaggio delle api XXI], vv. 43-52, we read:

Quattro volte l’aurora era salita
Su l’Oriente a riveder le Grazie
Da che nacquero al mondo; e Giano antico
Padre d’Italia e l’Adriaca Anfitrite Inviavan lor doni, e un drappelletto di Najadi e fanciulle Eridanine E quante i pomi d’Aniene, e i fonti
Godean d’Arno e di Tebro; e quante avea Ninfe il mar d’Aretusa; e le guidavi Tu più che giglio nivea Galatea.

[Four times had Aurora risen in the eastern / sky to see again the Graces, since / to the world they were born; and ancient Janus, / Italy’s father, and the Adriatic / Deity Amphitrite had sent them their gifts / with a small number of Naiads and girls / from Eridanus, with all those who enjoyed / the apples of Aniene, and the fountains / of the Arno and the Tiber, and all the nymphs / of the Arethusian Sea; and whiter / than lily, you, Galathaea, guided them]

(Foscolo 1985, 1049; translation from Foscolo 2013, 96–97).

  • 72 The list of rivers and streams evoked by Foscolo includes not only real rivers such as the Olona, P (...)
  • 73 Notably in Inni alle Grazie’s different editorial stages and drafts, nymphs play a role in the worl (...)

24Janus’ and Amphitrite’s gifts are groups of nymphs, including the Naiads, the rivers nymphs from Eridanus (the River Po), Aniene, Tiber and Arno, the nymphs from the Sicilian Sea, all of which are guided by Galatea. The ‘scene’ of Janus and Amphitrite’s gifts can be considered as the transformation of the traditional topos of Polyphemus who attempts to persuade Galatea of his love by enumerating his gifts for her. According to the topos of nymph’s description, in Foscolo’s verses Galatea’s whiteness and beauty is considered superior to that of the lily’s: “Tu più che giglio nivea Galatea” [whiter than a lily, you, Galatea] (Foscolo 1985, 1049, v. 52). A variation on the expression is also found in a detached line “Qual giglio fresco, nivea Galatea” [like fresh lily, snow-white Galatea] (865, v. 46) in Viaggio in Ellade III, [Apparizione di Venere e suo portento] (865) included in Labr. I, Ins. 12, p. 3. In addition to the immediate resemblance to the triumph of Galatea, like those painted by Raphael and Pietro da Cartona, the episode indirectly recalls a ‘catalogue of nymphs’ similar to the one present in Sanazzaro’s Eclogues Piscatorie IV, Proteo, and in Vergil’s Georgica 4, vv. 333-351.72 The importance of nymphs and aquatic element is thus reaffirmed, as well as the hydrography of the spaces involved in the Graces’ mythopoeia.73

25Furthermore a note on Galatea appears in [Sommario del Quadernone, Inno Secondo], Distribuzione diversa dell’Inno secondo dell’Antistrofe:

  1. Giano le manda a chiamare

  2. Loro venuta con Galatea e passaggio loro per Ibla, e le seguono le Api

  3. Siedono con Amore il quale non era per anco irato con esse in Posillipo, e con Apollo con esse, e loro canti

[1. Janus summoned them / 2. They come with Galatea and their passage through Ibla, and the Bees follow them / 3. They sit in Posillipo with Amore who was not yet irate with them, and with Apollo with them, and their songs]

(Foscolo 1985, 997, nn. 1-3)

  • 74 See also Vecce (1991).
  • 75 See for instance Silvani XII, [Valle delle donne. Dioneo assale i colombi. Apparizione del sileno e (...)

26The same note, without a reference to Galatea, is written in [Sommario del Quadernone, Inno Secondo, Parte II], (996), “2. Giano manda a invitarle. […] / 4. Luogo ameno di Napoli dove stanno con Apollo” [2. Giano kindly invites them. […] 4. Pleasant place in Naples where they stay with Apollo], transmitted in Labr. I, Quad., p. 15, and in [Indicazioni del fascicolo quinto] (998), where River Sabeto is told to be almost drained, “Giano manda a invitare le Grazie. Luogo ameno di Napoli dove siedono. / Il Sebeto povero d’acque tra il Vesuvio e Napoli” [Janus kindly invites the Graces. Pleasant place in Napoli where they stay. Sebeto lacking of water between Vesuvius and Naples] (Labr. I, fasc. V, pp. 1-2). Sebeto is a small river full of literary echoes, including, for instance, the one of Sannazaro’s Arcadia,74 while the motif of dry rivers and streams had already been represented in the fragments of Silvani, caused by the lascivious behaviours of Dioneo.75 In all these indexes and fragments the high ‘pastoral density’ of the places and myths evoked is reaffirmed. Indeed, it must be remembered on the one hand that Galatea’s myth marks the transfer of pastoral world into a marine context, as identified, for instance, in Sannazaro’s Ecloga II through the intertextuality with Teocritus’ Idyls VI and XI and Vergil’s Bucolics II, and this transposition occurred in Foscolo’s young poem La Campagna dedicated to Aurelio Bertola, where Posillipus and the coast of Margellina are evoked:

Pingo; ma resto attonito Allor che su i tuoi fogli Veggo fiorire e sorgere Piante e marini scogli, Che sembrano invitarmi A sacrar lor carmi.
Da me s’invola subito
Il mio picciol soggiorno E sol veggo Posilipo
E Il mar che vanta intorno Di Mergellina il lido
Ameno più che Gnido

[I depict; but I remain astonished when on your sheets I see plants and marine rocks flourishing and rising, which seem to invite me to dedicate to them the poems. My little stay immediately flies away from me and I only see Posillipo and the sea that boasts around the shore of Mergellina more pleasant than Gnido]

  • 76 On Foscolo’s La Campagna. Ad Aurelio De’ Giorgi Bertola, see also Cataudella (1980, 3).

(Foscolo 1985, 263, vv. 19–30)76

  • 77 On idrography of pastoral world, see Lavocat (2002).
  • 78 In Aeneid VIII, v. 357 Janus is told “Ianus pater” and the same epithet is adopted in Viaggio delle (...)
  • 79 Indeed the lines 32-34 “le Grazie / Giano padre d’Italia ad invitarle / Mandò le Ninfe” [Janus fath (...)

27On the other hand, rivers and streams characterise pastoral setting and in turn they are subject of pastoral stories, as, for instance, Boccaccio’s Ninfale fiesolano and Ninfale d’Ameto, and Pontanus’ Eridanus and Parthenopeus prove.77Additionally it must be noticed that in the above mentioned fragments of Viaggio delle api as well as in the multiple narrative structures of Inno II displayed by the various indexes of Quadernone and Indicazioni Fascicolo V, Foscolo ties the pastoral matter with myths inherent to Roman subject represented, for instance by Janus,78 with the aim to recount the civilizing effect of the Graces in Italy and celebrate Italian poetry. In short, at a certain point in the elaboration of the hymns, the allegorical history of Italian poetry is told not only through pastoral poetry and its link with classical literature, but also through the multiple and indirect references to the literary sources of the Arcadian tradition. Furthermore it is necessary to trace the correspondence between a draft contained in Viaggio delle api XVI, vv. 32-38 (1043) and the indexes regarding Janus summoning the Graces,79 while the story of the gifts of Janus and Amphitrite to the Graces included in Viaggio delle api XVII and Viaggio delle api XX seems to be a further development of this episode.

  • 80 In Schema del Manoscritto di Valenciennes Galatea reaffirms the importance of her myth in the hymns (...)

28But we have not yet exhausted Galatea’s significance in Foscolo’s mythopoeia.80 In Repertorio alfabetico, a sort of alphabetical index, Galatea symbolises modesty and she is depicted with a veil like the three Graces, the ancient Roman brides and Tacitus’ Poppea. Foscolo wrote as following:

Galatea; − simboleggia la Modestia che secondo l’Autore è un raffinamento d’un animo finto che serra il proprio merito e lo vela per non offendere gli altri, arte singolarissima delle accorte donne nel loro ornamento, osservata da Tacito in Poppea, che usciva sempre velata, ne saziaret aspectu.
Modestia, vedi Galatea.

[Galatea; − symbolises Modesty which according to the Author is a refinement of an artificial soul that hides its own value and veils it so as not to offend others: a very singular art of shrewd women in their adornment, observed by Tacitus in Poppea, who always came out veiled, ne saziaret aspectu. Modesty, see Galatea.]

  • 81 The excerpt in Latin is from Tacitus, Annales XIII.

(Foscolo 1985, 1000)81

29Although Galateas’ symbolism can be explained through the entry Pudicitia in Ripa’s Iconology (which illustrates Pudicitia as a woman with a veil bearing a lilium, who is compared to Poppea as a model of womanly behaviour), the precise reference to Poppea in Foscolo’s Repertorio alfabetico allows for a semantic slip from the idea of ‘pudicitia’ on the one hand to the idea of ‘modestia’ on the other. Indeed, in Ripa’s Iconology Poppea is given as an historical example of the Roman brides and matrons veiled in public in order to seem chaste and modest:

Le Spose Romane per segno di pudicitia, etiamdio nello stesso giorno, che andavano a marito si velavano il capo. […] costume osservato medesimamente da Matrone Romane. Poppea sebina, moglie di Nerone, ancorche impudica fusse per parer pudica, compariva in pubblico velata.

[Roman brides, as a sign of modesty, also veiled their heads on the same day when they were getting married. […] custom similarly observed by Roman matrons. Poppaea Sebina, wife of Nero, even though she was immodest, in order to appear modest, was veiled in public.]

(Ripa 1624, 539)

  • 82 In a cancelled variant Foscolo wrote “dell’alterigia che copre” [presumtuousness which covers].

30In the case of Ripa’s Poppea, modesty is just an appearance. Accordingly, in Foscolo the reference to Poppea serves not as a model of chastity, but as an example of a humble attitude,82 and as a ‘refined art of appearance’ which can be associated to the definition of grace as a charming quality and a disposition to elegance and simplicity apparently effortless. As a consequence Galatea embodies an essential aspect of the aesthetic idea of grace and can be considered a personification of the grace.

  • 83 As has been noticed, groups of fragments containing the same mythological motives tend to come toge (...)

31To conclude, the sketch of Gulf of Naples allows for an intra-textual investigation that opens up to Foscolo’s laboratory: it shows how the mythological motives appear, develop, and aggregate;83 which meaning they assume along the work in progress and to which phase of the composition they belong; whether they are further developments of each other and whether they mark a progression in the different structures of the hymns. At the same time it is clear that the ‘endless’ forms assumed by myths constitute the effective narrative force of the poem, and that some mythological motives acquired the value of icons: of war, in the case of Erinyes, of an aspect of the concept of grace and echo of pastoral poetry in the case of Galatea, of literary model for Vergil and Orpheus. Consequently the expression ‘system of hymns’ seems appropriate to describe Foscolo’s Inni alle Grazie, and hopefully these considerations on the hymns will contribute to rethink the problem of their critical edition and legibility.

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Notes

1 [The Graces, my dear Graces] (Foscolo 1970, 387); [And I stir in my soul, I again stir in my soul, I am consumed, I torment every verse within myself in a thousand ways; then I copy them] (387). Excerpts from Ugo Foscolo’s letters. Even though the passage from the letter to Quirina is inherent to Foscolo’s translation of Iliad, it opens Foscolo’s method of composition up to his whole poetic work.

2 A translation in English of Le Grazie has been made by Jonathan A. Needham (Foscolo 2013). Needham’s translation is primarily a combination of a text edited by Franco Gavazzeni for Ricciardi (1974), based in turn on the critical editions by Chiarini and Orlandini, and of a text edited by Luigi Russo for Sansoni (1968), based on the critical edition by Ferrari. Translations lifted from Needham’s work are referenced as such. In all other instances, the translations are my own.

3 Francesco Pagliai’s papers are kept at the Archive of Accademia della Crusca. The prospect is contained in band n. 1414. Francesco Pagliai worked almost half century on a critical edition of Le Grazie, and at the end of his life intended to published two different critical editions, Maior and Minor. The title of the two editorial stages can be translated as “Drafts Conceived for Supplementary Purpose in regard to the First Attempt of Writing a Tripartite Poem (y) and Continued as Sections Ideally Integrated the Editorial Stage of Quaderno (Q) = q1” and “Drafts Conceived and Developed as Sections Ideally Integrated the Editorial Stage of Quaderno = q2 and q3”. Quaderno is the name given by Pagliai to the editorial stage of Quadernone.

4 In Italian the word ‘quadernone’ means ‘oversized notebook’.

5 See also Foscolo (1994, 121–125, 612–636).

6 The whole catalogue has been reprinted and translated in Italian, see Bruni (2012). Additionally on the Dissertation, see Barbarisi (2005), Bruni (2015, 177–207), and Parrini (2013, 2015). On the creation of Woburn Abbeys’ collection, see Angelicoussis (1992). On Canova’s relationship with the world of British arts, see Costarelli (2022).

7 Rejecting Scotti and Pagliai’s chronological hypothesis, Christian Del Vento believes that Foscolo continued to compose some fragments of Inni alle Grazie in Switzerland (Del Vento 2023, 222–235).

8 See especially Baker (2000), Yarrington (2002), Urbanic (2015), and Yarrington (2021).

9 Even though the base reliefs are described in the Outline, they were posed in the Sculpture Gallery only in 1828 (Yarrington 2021, 39).

10 On the division between moral and mystical allegories, see Vagata (2023a, 25–28)

11 Arnaldo Bruni considers the Dissertation’s 184 verses the editio ne varietur of Foscolo’s Inni alle Grazie (Bruni 2009, 23–25, 142; 2012, ccxvii).

12 See Foscolo (1985, 974–975) Appunti sulla ragion poetica, [La Venere del Canova e la Venere de’ Medici] and [La Musa del Canova]. The ekfrasis is included in manuscript Naz, Fi. Reg. Mors. p. 5 and it dates 31st August 1812 (Firenze). Registro Mors (Reg. Mors) also transmits texts from the initial stage of the composition of the hymn (Prima redazione dell’Inno). Arnaldo Bruni considers the two fragments the generative core of Inni alle Grazie.

13 A good example would be Joshua Reynold’s portrait Lady Sarah Bunbury sacrificing to the Graces see Gombrich (1942) and Warner and Reynolds (1989). The experience of considering the statue alive seems to be central in other fragments of Inni alle Grazie, in particular those that allude to Canova’s Venere Italica and Three Graces.

14 An affinity can be observed with the philology of drama and performing arts in which the text is “open”.

15 “But – The Graces (although almost every Greek and Latin author has felt it to be a kind of religious duty to name them) have never yet had a mythology sufficiently known and determinate to supply imagery for the Fine Art” (Foscolo 1985, 1099).

16 For the theoretical assumptions on Foscolo’s mythopoeia, see Vagata (2023a, 12–34).

17 See Pasquini (1995) and Del Vento (2023, 179–211). Several myths can be compared to an underground river, either visible or invisible in a specific point of the poetic process, while other myths directly develop from an initial story.

18 On the sketch see Cataudella (1980, 3–4) and Foscolo (1985, 290–291).

19 For the description see Foscolo (1985, 291–319).

20 See also Del Vento (2023, 231). It must be noted that the index was written in reverse: p. 15 (f. 8r) corresponds to the index of Inno primo and Inno secondo, and p. 14 (f. 7v) corresponds to the index of Inno terzo and of a different draft of an index belonging to a section of Inno secondo. At p. 12 (f. 6v) a short note pertaining Amore’s and Graces’ journey in Laconia is transmitted.

21 See for instance Niccolini’s Lezioni di mitologia a uso degli antichi, Lezione quarantesi-masettima (Niccolini 1855).

22 For example, at vv. 40-41: “Ardon l’Erinni di lor man le antique / Selve, e le moli opra di regi” [with their own hands Erinyes burn old forests and majestic palaces built by kings], (Foscolo 1985, 624). See also Vagata (2023a, 212, n. 61).

23 An enemy of Graces, probably an Eryn.

24 The entire passage implies the myth of Phaeton in Ovid’s Metamorphoses II, vv . 19339.

25 For further information on the topic, see Vagata (2024, 292–293).

26 In the original, the passage reads: ‘Ed era quasi spento [il fuoco di Vesta] oggi che arse il core d’un mortale ad incendiare la terra; Mosca come fu arsa” (Foscolo 1985, 996) An allusion to Phaeton also appears in Stesure del Carme tripartito, Belle vergini addio I (764 and n. 3).

27 See Sommari e note, [Principio di un sommario per l’Inno secondo e appunti su Vesta ed Erinni] in Foscolo (1985, 991). The fragment is transmitted in Labr. II, Valenciennes, p. 83. In the manuscript, the word “Etruria” is only partially readable as the part “truria” is cancelled. The sentence “nelle Etrusche terre porre la sede” [in the Etruscan territories build the headquarters] is an interlinear variant. The second occurrence of the word “Etruria” is unclear as well. The historical reference inside the passage is uncertain, however it may echoes the expression “Etruria antica” [ancient Etruria] in Sommario del Quadernone, Inno Secondo, Parte Seconda, n. 7 (993) which refers to the wars between Etruscans and Romans. This interpretation is corroborated by the proximity with the indication n. 8 “Sole e parlata di Giano” [Sun and Giano’s speech] (994), as Janus belongs to the Roman mythology.

28 See Sommari e note, [Sommario del Quadernone] in Foscolo (1985, 996 and nn. 110–111). The passage is cancelled by Foscolo.

29 See Abbozzi [Arcadia] in Foscolo (1985, 934), and [La terra in signoria d’Amore] (936). The condition of the primitive state of perennial wars is clearly stated in the variant “stato selvaggio [di guerra]” [primitive state of war] (934, n. 30). Also Indicazioni del fascicolo V, p. 8 tracks a similar symbolism: “Tenta di spengere quel foco l’Erinni in Italia Sommove i popoli settentrionali” [Eryn tries to extinguish Vesta’s fire. It agitates Northern people] (999). The word ‘Northern’ (“settentrinali”) is not clear.

30 See Erinne I, V, and Erinne e Fetonte in Foscolo (1985, 752–753, 758–759). For a discussion of Erinyes as an icon of war, see Pasquini (1995).

31 On Erinne V, see Scotti’s commentary in Foscolo (1987, 62–66, 181–183). For interpreting the word “fantasmi” [phantoms] as Aurora borealis, see also an excerpt from Abbozzi, Arcadia: “Costei da che le Muse la espulsero dall’Europa, andò sdegnata ad abitare il mare australe, e i mari immensi de’ ghiacci, e torna spesso ad atterrire i popoli con fantasmi, ed a’ godere dello stato di guerra in cui li aveva lasciati ecc.: e vedi oggi le larve —“ [Since Muses expelled Eryn from Europe, she indignantly went to inhabit the Southern ocean and the immense icy seas, and often returns to terrify the people with phantoms, and to enjoy the state of war she had left those people etc; see today the larvae] (Foscolo 1985, 934). At a mythical level, one also can observe that the horrible chimeras evoked by Foscolo at line 11 of [Erinne V] recall their mythological representation of personification of the volcanoes (Foscolo 1974, 424). On the assimilation between chimera and volcanoes, see also Cartari (2004, 158).

32 See Spaggiari (2016, 42–45) and Casini (1983, 155–158).

33 All commentaries track as the scene’s source Antonio Conti’s work, especially Il Globo di Venere, Riflessioni sull’aurora boreale and a poem on aurora borealis seen by Conti in London in 1716 (Conti 1739, CXXIX). In particular Scotti notices that in Labr. I, fasc. VIII, p. 9, containing fragment [Erinni I], Foscolo noted and underlined the phrase “sibili e fischi” [whistles and hisses] which seems extrapolated from Conti’s Riflessioni (Foscolo 1987, 62–63).

34 In Conti’s Prose e poesie (1739) a translation of a letter on Fata Morgana precedes the treatise on aurora borealis. Both text serves as an explanation of some verses of Il globo di Venere, see Conti (1739, 24, 46-47 n. 48, 132-134 nn. 628-630 and 655-658). The phenomenon of Fata Morgana was the subject of Varano’s Visioni V, 84-86, and of a “precountry” poem of Ippolitio Pindemonte, dedicated to Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi and written during Pindemonte’s stay in Reggio Calabria, La Fata Morgana. Poema a Temira (1782), see Fagan (2017–18, 98–111) and Spaggiari (2016, 41–42).

35 The passage is transmitted in Labr. I, Valenciennes, p. 83. The words “i Turchi” [Turks] is not entirely readable and it is a mere editor’s conjecture. The meaning of the sentence is not clear.

36 For a description of Fascicolo V, see Foscolo (1985, 353–356) and Pagliai (1966, 188– 191).

37 In Viaggio delle api XXV [Le api alla foce dell’Arno. La Speranza, III], included in Labr. I, fasc. VII, p. 18, the reader can find an allusion either to a fairy or to several fairies (Foscolo 1985, 1057).

38 On the fragment see Scotti’s commentary in Foscolo (1987, 114–117, 224–226). At p. 13 groups of verses representing initial drafts on the episode of Morgan the Fairy are cancelled. At p. 12 of Fascicolo V a group of verses alludes to municipal conflicts in Medieval Firenze is transmitted, see Foscolo (1985, 1064–1065, vv. 55–61).

39 It should be briefly added that the connection between Morgan the Fairy and epic poems will be later corroborated by an excerpt from Foscolo’s Poemi narrativi, where the uniformity between the ancient and the modern myths told in the chivalric poems is demonstrated: “In the loves of Aurora and Cephalus we discover the origins of the ideas entertained by the inhabitants of Messina and Reggio respecting the Fata Morgana; they suppose that the Fata, out of compliment to his [her] young lover, produces the well-known aerial phaenomenon seen in the summer over the straits which divide Italy from Sicily. A peasant in the Ionian isles cannot be persuaded to venture out of his cottage at noon during the month of July, he is afraid of the fairies whom he calls Anereides, i. e. Nereides. These seadamels, together with their sister nymphs, exercise the same power over man as the sylphs of Cabalists” (Foscolo 1958, II 79; italics in the original).

40 According to Scotti the texts are simultaneous (Foscolo 1985, 353–354). The indications in the second half of the sentence at p. 10 (“seguendo le muse cacciate da’ Tartari” [following the Muses expelled by the Tartars]) and of p. 11 (“tra il lito di Messina e di Reggio” [between the shore of Messina and Reggio]), and the cancelled variant of p. 13 (“L’altra trattenuta da Morgana vanno con l’Ariosto nel Po, Berni e Tasso” [The other retained by Morgan the Fairy go to the Po with Ariosto, Berni and Tasso]) appear to be written in ink clearer than the one adopted for other texts. At p. 13 Foscolo corrected with the “L’altra verso Toscana” [The other toward Tuscany] and added “Dante qui” [Dante here]. In the manuscript I read “qui” [here] instead of “ecc” [etc] as indicated in Foscolo (1985, 999).

41 For an account of the return of art works, see Mackay Quynn (1945, 445–453).

42 Medici Venus left Paris between September/October 1815 and returned in Firenze 27th December 2015, see “Gazzetta di Firenze” (1814–16), 10th October 1815, 8th and 28th December 1815, and the English magazine the Courier, 4th and 9th October 1815 (Mackay Quynn 1945, 455–456). The return of Medici Venus was widely celebrated in Tuscany, see “Gazzetta di Firenze” (1814–16), 3rd January 1816 and 19th February 1916. Concerning the sculpture’s restoring, see Boyer (1965), Paolini (1952), and “Gazzetta di Firenze” (1814–16, 1815).

43 At v. 38 Foscolo previously wrote “forse sol col pianto?” [perhaps only with tears?].

44 Propertius wrote “Iuppiter” instead of “Alecto”: “Omnia praebebant somnos: sed Iuppiter unus / decrevit poenis invigilare suis” (Propertius 1990, v. 85).

45 In Propertius: “Nam Vesta, Iliacae felix tutela favillae” (Propertius 1990, v. 69).

46 Unlike Propertius, who saw Tarpeia as the embodiment of guilty love, Livius considered her to be guilty of fraud for betraying the Roman army in exchange for money. Tarpeia’s myth had some applications in Roman law.

47 Already in Stesure del Carme tripartito, [Belle vergini, addio III], vv. 12-20, Foscolo’s celebration of Graces in Italy converged in two focal points: the sacred fire of Vesta, in other words Rome, and the successor of the ancient Greek civilization symbolises by Firenze: “Fra l’arti io coronato e fra le Muse / All’Ausonia dirò come indulgenti / Tornate ospiti a lei, sì che più grata / In più splendida reggia, e con solenne / Pompa v’implori; udrà come redenta / Fu due volte per voi, quando sul Tebro / Vide Vesta il suo foco, e poi Minerva / su l’Arno trapiantò l’Attico ulivo” [I, crowned among the arts and Muses, / will tell my homeland that you are indulgent / guests returned to her, so that more grateful / she may honor you in the most splendid / palace and with solemn pomp. She will hear / she was twice by you redeemed, when Vesta / placed the flame on the Tiber and Minerva / gave Flora, for you, the attic olive tree] (Foscolo 1985, 767–768; translation from Foscolo 2013, 81–82).

48 In Propertius the line reads “fistula poturas ire iubebat ouis” (Propertius 1990, v. 6).

49 See, for instance, Quadernone, Inno I, vv. 181-183: “ei sul meriggio / Fa sua casa un frascato, e a un suon d’avena / Le pecorelle sue chiama alla fonte” [At midday he finds his house among leafy / branches and, at the sound of his reed-pipe, / he calls his sheep to the spring] (Foscolo 1985, 794; translation from Foscolo 2013, 115). On the convergence between Propertius verses, the excerpt from Lettera a Fabre and the verses on Silvano, see Pagliai (1952, 333–336).

50 In particular Fabre’s collection is mentioned in [Abbozzi di una dedica alla contessa D’Albany II] and in its variants nn. 7-14 “serie de’ quadri ch’esso raccoglie” [series of paintings he collects] (Foscolo 1985, 977). This draft, at least, has been written while Foscolo was in Milano, as he expressed the intention to give his verses to Countess D’Albany in Firenze where he specifies he composed the poem, rather than sending them from Lombardia where he resided: “Or vorrei potere presentarle in Firenze dove fu scritto, piuttosto che mandarle di Lombardia questo libricciuolo; ma la Fortuna vuole ch’io viva di rimembranze e di desiderii; così affretto il quando e l’occasione ch’io possa risalire tutte le mattine al poggio di Bellosguardo per inoltrarmi nelle regioni delle illusioni, e di discendere tutte le sere sino alla sua casa, perch’Ella torni a svelarmi tutte le sere la schietta amabilità d’un animo femminile aducato dalla virtù, e da cui spirano perpetue le Grazie” [Now I would like to be able to present this little book to you in Florence where it was written, rather than send it from Lombardy; but Fortune wants me to live on memories and desires; so I hasten the when and the opportunity for me to go back up to the Bellosguardo’s hill every morning so as to enter the regions of illusions, and to go down every evening to your house, so that you will return to reveal to me every evening the frank kindness of a feminine soul educated by virtue, and from which Graces perpetually flow] (Foscolo 1985, 977–978).

51 In particular in Silvani VII, [Valle delle donne IV] (Foscolo 1985, vv. 1-9, and 12-19), Silvani VIII, [Fauno. Valle delle donne. Elisa e Dioneo] (903–904, vv. 12–18), Silvani X, [Valle delle donne. Elisa e Dioneo. Dioneo assale i colombi. Apparizione del sileno e della napea. Le novelle invereconde. Deprecazione] (911, vv. 1–6), Silvani XI, [Valle delle donne. Dioneo assale i colombi. Apparazione del sileno e della napea. Le novelle invereconde. Deprecazione] (917–918, vv. 1–6). In Silvani VI, [Valle delle donne III] (899, vv. 1–5), the passenger is a generic “Tu” [you], and in Silvani VII Fabre is told to be the painter of living nymphs.

52 Namely [Pittura] (Foscolo 1985, 706), [Onore e libertà. Belle arti] (707, vv. 18–20), [Fabre. Danzatrice seconda sacerdotessa I] (707, vv. 1–3), all of which are transmitted in Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 6, p. 1 (now fasc. II, p. 5) and Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 5, p. 1 (now fasc. II, p. 7). In the fragments painting is associated with elegance, however only in [Fabre. Danzatrice seconda sacerdotessa I] Fabre’s epithet “artefice elegante” [elegant artist] appears. A proximity in their composition can be supposed. Finally in Abbozzi di una dedica alla contessa d’Albany II and III (977–978) and in Stesure del Carme tripartito, Belle vergini, addio I (765, vv. 20–25), Fabre is told to be ‘Pussin’s elegant pupil’. Hence ‘elegance’ represents Fabre’s feature in Inni alle Grazie. Fabre is likely to being alluded in Versi del velo XI, [Il velo e Amore], vv. 17-20 “E or ospiti improvvise all’elegante / Pittor scendete, e con l’ingenuo riso / Dolce un decoro pioverà alla tela” [And now unexpected guests of the elegant Painter come down, and with your naive laughter an ornament will sweetly fall on the canvas] (853). The fragment is transmitted in Labr. I, Ins. 12, f.º 2, p.1.

53 Briefly, with the exception of [Arti derivanti dall’Armonia II], which is the latest and final draft of [Arti derivanti dall’Amonia I], the fragments [Versi dell’Armonia: nuovi motivi per la chiusa dell’Inno primo], [Arti derivanti dall’Armonia I][Belle vergini, addio IV] and [Belle vergini, addio V] are all transmitted in Labr. II, Valenciennes, pp. 18-20, and they form a group. All the fragments include attempts of concluding Inno primo.

54 The fragment is transmitted in Naz. Fi. III, A, pp. 31, 29, and it consists of a copy of Andrea Calbo, subsequently corrected by Foscolo, an autograph passage written with the same ink of the corrections, and a piece of a ripped page containing an autograph text (vv. 46-56) which corresponds to vv. 1-11 copied by Calbo (Foscolo 1985, 275, 927–930). According to Pagliai the fragment was copied by Calbo in Firenze, between September and November 1813, during Foscolo’s last stay in Firenze (Pagliai 1966, 158–159); see also Foscolo (1985, 275). Differently, Del Vento hypothesizes that [Silvani XIV] dates back to the time Calbo reached Foscolo in Switzerland (Del Vento 2023, 232–235).

55 The fragment is transmitted in Labr. I, fasc. VII, pp. 2-3. Lines 51-63 are cancelled. On the attempt of inserting the episode of Silvani within the story of the journey of bees, see Pagliai (1966, 148–159).

56 Another fragment, Viaggio delle api I [Anacreonte. Teocrito. Petrarca] (Foscolo 1985, 1014–1015, vv. 14–34), represents together Anacreonte’s and Teocritus’ cameos, see Pagliai (1966, 155–156, 159). The fragment is transmitted in Labr. I, fasc. XIV, p. 1, and it is a partial copy of Silvani XIV. The first draft of the Anacreonte’s cameo belongs to Stesure del Carme tripartito, [Omero. Corinna. Aancreote. Saffo. Tasso], vv. 16-21 (Foscolo 1985, 722–723) which is included in Naz. Fi., XIII, 6ª, c. 3 (Cassetta foscoliana). Cassetta foscoliana in Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze contains scattered drafts of the Inni alle Grazie.

57 For a discussion of Vergil’s presence in Foscolo’s work, see esp. Longoni (2018b).

58 It is clear that Foscolo adopted Antonio Conti’s critical perspective. The concept is proposed again in Foscolo (1985, 972), Appunti sulla ragion poetica, [Dello «stile»: nuove osservazioni destinate alla prima nota dell’Inno terzo]. In Repertorio alfabetico Vergil is noted for his style: “Virgilio, ragione del suo stile” [Vergil, reason for his style] (1001).

59 See also Vagata (2023b, 236).

60 By several scholars, Poliziano’s work is traced as one of the hymns’ sources: see Pomilio (1953), D’Episcopo (1988), Martelli (1980, 220–244), and Vagata (2023a, 30n).

61 See Prima redazione dell’Inno, [Sonatrice seconda sacerdotessa I], vv. 41-47 (Foscolo 1985, 650). See also Vagata (2023a, 156–157).

62 The icon of Orpheus representing the herald of civilization, knowledge and wisdom (‘sapienza umana’) is common. For instance it can be traced in Vincenzo Cuoco’s Platone in Italia. The fragment [Armonia discesa sulle Grazie] also alludes to Orpheus’ horrendous death “e infausto / ti fu poscia quel dono!” [and unfortunate was that gift to you afterwards!] (Foscolo 1985, 736, vv. 17–18). Similarly to Socrates and Prometheus, Orpheus is associated with the figure of “martyr” for truth, philosophy and human development.

63 See also Foscolo (1985, 712, vv. 28–36). There is allusion to the grief for Orpheus in Versi del velo VIII, [Espero. Comparsa di Minerva. Minerva consola le Grazie e promette loro un dono. Atlantide. Pallade impartisce il lavoro. Orditura del velo], vv. 116-117 (845).

64 The story is further recounted in Versi del velo XII [Armonia dal velo II] (Foscolo 1985, 856–857). It expands on the myth of Orpheus torn apart by Bacchantes and of the lyre bearing Orpheus’ head across the sea according to Fanocles’ version of the myth. Fanocles’ story is also included in one of the fragments that deals with the Graces’ hair in La Chioma di Berenice, Considerazione decimaseconda, Chiome bionde (Foscolo 1972, 434). The fragment combines a variety of sources. Beyond Fanocles, we can trace the picture of Apollo with a quiver back to Homer’s Iliad (see Iliad I, vv. 53-60). On Fanocles’ version, see Longoni (2018a, 337–338). Martelli suggests that Foscolo also knew Poliziano’s version of the myth recounted in Nutricia (Martelli 1980, 223–225).

65 The same idea appears in Sommario del Quadernone, Inno II, Parte III, nn. 9-10 (Foscolo 1985, 997), transmitted in Quadernone (p. 14).

66 Interconnections between Galatea, Proserpina and Eurydice as dancers and personifications of three Graces occur in Stesure appartenenti al disegno del Carme tripartito, [Tre donne], vv. 48-54 (Foscolo 1985, 721).

67 The motif of Galatea dancing does not seem to be Foscolo’s invention: in Pontano’s Lyra XIII, v, 63–64, Polyphemus ad Galateam, for instance, Polyphemus invites Galatea to dance to the sound of his bagpipe (Monti Sabia 1972).

68 See also Castelli (2018, 17). For a general survey of the myth of Galatea, see Manitta (2007).

69 The Eclogae Piscatoriae are placed in Napoli. Sannazaro’s work was familiar for Foscolo, as proven by an epigraph from the eclogue in the opening of SillogeNaranzi (Foscolo 1976, 186–187); see also Neppi (2001, 3–4) on the matter. A generic reference to Sannazaro is also included in Piano di studi at the entry “Pastorali” (Foscolo 1972, 4). For Sannazaro’s Ecloga II and its sources, see Salemme (2007, 27–39).

70 In the arts an overlapping between Galatea and Venus is common. The overlap is also proved by the representation of Galatea in Ripa’s Iconology as a woman under whose feet a turtle is posed (Ripa 1624, Pudicitia). In Alciato’s Emblemata, in particular in n. 106 Mulieris faman non formam / vulgatam esse oportere, which is tracked as one of Ripa’s sources, the woman is identified with Venus, see Perêz Jiménez (2013, 22–24). In this regard, consider the Roman sculpture of Venus kneeling on the turtle, Crouching Aphrodite (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado).

71 The superiority of Galatea’s whiteness and beauty in relation to other elements is a topos of her description, as it appears, for instance, in Vergil’s Ecloga VII, “candior cycnis, hedera formosior alba” (Vergilius 1969, v. 37), Theocritus’ Idyl XI, v. 20 “Candior caseo, cum aspiceris” (Teocrito, Mosco, Bione 1780, 145), Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Ovidius 2004, XIII, vv. 789), Angelo Poliziano’s Stanze per la giostra, “e dica ch’ella è bianca più che il latte” [and say that she is whiter than milk] (Poliziano 2016, CXVII, v. 1), and Metastasio’s La Galatea, “O bianca Galatea / più candida del giglio” [Oh white Galatea, whither than a lily] (Metastasio 1793, scena II, Polifemo).

72 The list of rivers and streams evoked by Foscolo includes not only real rivers such as the Olona, Po, Aniene, Tiber and Arno, but also mythological rivers such as the Titaresio and Alfeo, and rivers and streams deeply rooted in the literary tradition such as the Sebeto and Affrico.

73 Notably in Inni alle Grazie’s different editorial stages and drafts, nymphs play a role in the world civilized by the Graces’ arrival. On this topic, see Vagata (2023b, 236–237). On the relationship between watery element and nymphs, one should consider Boccaccio’s Genealogie deorum gentilium (Boccaccio 1998, 738-743, De nynphis in generalis), where the nymphs are told to be the different names of humidity. Concerning the topic, see Ardissino (2013, 18, 21). On nymphs, in particular those described in Boccaccio’s Ninfale fiorentino and Ninfale fiesolano, both of which are a vein of inspiration for Foscolo’s episode of Silvani, see Curti (2016).

74 See also Vecce (1991).

75 See for instance Silvani XII, [Valle delle donne. Dioneo assale i colombi. Apparizione del sileno e della napea. Le novelle invereconde], vv. 60-80 (Foscolo 1985, 924–925). Although the fragment is cancelled, it represents the last and most accomplished form of the episode. The same motif appears in Viaggio delle api X, [Le api e la Valle delle donne, I-IV], (1029– 1033).

76 On Foscolo’s La Campagna. Ad Aurelio De’ Giorgi Bertola, see also Cataudella (1980, 3).

77 On idrography of pastoral world, see Lavocat (2002).

78 In Aeneid VIII, v. 357 Janus is told “Ianus pater” and the same epithet is adopted in Viaggio delle api XVI, [Rito a memoria dei favi. L’invito di Giano], v. 33. Giano was confused with Sun and was considered the divinity of war and peace; see Cartari (2004, 20–26). Inside the indexes of Quadernone and Fascicolo V other elements such as Numa, the fire of Vesta, Egeria, and the reference to ancient Etruria, suggest the Roman subject; see Foscolo (1985, 993–994, 996–999).

79 Indeed the lines 32-34 “le Grazie / Giano padre d’Italia ad invitarle / Mandò le Ninfe” [Janus father of Italy sent the Nymph to invite the Graces] of Viaggio delle api XVI, [Rito a memoria dei favi. L’invito di Giano] (Foscolo 1985, 1043) are recalled in the index entry “Giano manda a invitarle” and its slightly variations in the indexes of Quadernone and Fascicolo V (996–998).

80 In Schema del Manoscritto di Valenciennes Galatea reaffirms the importance of her myth in the hymns (Foscolo 1985, 984).

81 The excerpt in Latin is from Tacitus, Annales XIII.

82 In a cancelled variant Foscolo wrote “dell’alterigia che copre” [presumtuousness which covers].

83 As has been noticed, groups of fragments containing the same mythological motives tend to come together and be transmitted in the same manuscript or insert. For instance many fragments mentioned in this essay belong to Labr. I, Ins. 12. Nonetheless, due to the status of a recomposed manuscript of Ins. 12, it is difficult to reconstruct its chronology and the internal order of the fragments transmitted there.

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List of illustrations

Title Figure 1
Caption Photograph of Ugo Foscolo’s sketch of the Gulf of Naples, on f. 8v (p. 16) of his Quandernone, Manoscritti foscoliani – Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi, Livorno. Rendered with higher contrast and sharpness to emphasize the sketch.
Credits Image reproduced with permission from the copyright holder.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/variants/docannexe/image/1977/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 2.0M
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References

Bibliographical reference

Daniela Shalom Vagata, On a Sketch of the Gulf of Naples. Considerations on the Mythological System of Ugo Foscolo’s Inni alle GrazieVariants, 19 | 2025, 37-68.

Electronic reference

Daniela Shalom Vagata, On a Sketch of the Gulf of Naples. Considerations on the Mythological System of Ugo Foscolo’s Inni alle GrazieVariants [Online], 19 | 2025, Online since 01 December 2025, connection on 15 February 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/variants/1977; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/15do3

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About the author

Daniela Shalom Vagata

Daniela Shalom Vagata is an expert of modern and contemporary Italian literature. She is the author of L’Inno alle Grazie di Ugo Foscolo (Olschki 2023), and has published on Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Dante, Italian cinema and Japanese contemporary arts. She has been specific program associate professor at Kyoto University and assistant professor at Masaryk University.

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Copyright

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The text only may be used under licence CC BY 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) may be subject to specific use terms.

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