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Notes
[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.
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.
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.
In Italian the word ‘quadernone’ means ‘oversized notebook’.
See also Foscolo (1994, 121–125, 612–636).
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).
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).
See especially Baker (2000), Yarrington (2002), Urbanic (2015), and Yarrington (2021).
Even though the base reliefs are described in the Outline, they were posed in the Sculpture Gallery only in 1828 (Yarrington 2021, 39).
On the division between moral and mystical allegories, see Vagata (2023a, 25–28)
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).
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.
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.
An affinity can be observed with the philology of drama and performing arts in which the text is “open”.
“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).
For the theoretical assumptions on Foscolo’s mythopoeia, see Vagata (2023a, 12–34).
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.
On the sketch see Cataudella (1980, 3–4) and Foscolo (1985, 290–291).
For the description see Foscolo (1985, 291–319).
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.
See for instance Niccolini’s Lezioni di mitologia a uso degli antichi, Lezione quarantesi-masettima (Niccolini 1855).
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).
An enemy of Graces, probably an Eryn.
The entire passage implies the myth of Phaeton in Ovid’s Metamorphoses II, vv . 19339.
For further information on the topic, see Vagata (2024, 292–293).
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).
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.
See Sommari e note, [Sommario del Quadernone] in Foscolo (1985, 996 and nn. 110–111). The passage is cancelled by Foscolo.
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.
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).
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).
See Spaggiari (2016, 42–45) and Casini (1983, 155–158).
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).
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).
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.
For a description of Fascicolo V, see Foscolo (1985, 353–356) and Pagliai (1966, 188– 191).
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).
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).
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).
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).
For an account of the return of art works, see Mackay Quynn (1945, 445–453).
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).
At v. 38 Foscolo previously wrote “forse sol col pianto?” [perhaps only with tears?].
Propertius wrote “Iuppiter” instead of “Alecto”: “Omnia praebebant somnos: sed Iuppiter unus / decrevit poenis invigilare suis” (Propertius 1990, v. 85).
In Propertius: “Nam Vesta, Iliacae felix tutela favillae” (Propertius 1990, v. 69).
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.
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).
In Propertius the line reads “fistula poturas ire iubebat ouis” (Propertius 1990, v. 6).
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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.
For a discussion of Vergil’s presence in Foscolo’s work, see esp. Longoni (2018b).
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).
See also Vagata (2023b, 236).
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).
See Prima redazione dell’Inno, [Sonatrice seconda sacerdotessa I], vv. 41-47 (Foscolo 1985, 650). See also Vagata (2023a, 156–157).
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.
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).
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).
The same idea appears in Sommario del Quadernone, Inno II, Parte III, nn. 9-10 (Foscolo 1985, 997), transmitted in Quadernone (p. 14).
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).
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).
See also Castelli (2018, 17). For a general survey of the myth of Galatea, see Manitta (2007).
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).
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).
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).
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.
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).
See also Vecce (1991).
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).
On Foscolo’s La Campagna. Ad Aurelio De’ Giorgi Bertola, see also Cataudella (1980, 3).
On idrography of pastoral world, see Lavocat (2002).
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).
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).
In Schema del Manoscritto di Valenciennes Galatea reaffirms the importance of her myth in the hymns (Foscolo 1985, 984).
The excerpt in Latin is from Tacitus, Annales XIII.
In a cancelled variant Foscolo wrote “dell’alterigia che copre” [presumtuousness which covers].
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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