On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death, Casa Leopardi pays homage to his memory by showing the public, for the first time, the original autograph of the canto Sopra il monument di Dante that was being prepared in Florence and some precious editions of the Commedia.

“For our family it is a great pleasure to be able to give the public the opportunity to enjoy the treasures present in the library that Giacomo has seen formed. - Countess Olimpia Leopardi, descendant of the Poet, said - We would like to offer visitors the opportunity to step into the shoes of the young reader and try to rediscover his boyish amazement, the one that captures all of us in front of a work that has shaped the collective imagination. In Dante Giacomo sees that ideal of a poet and writer who founds the Italian language, but he cannot fully identify with him, he cannot consider him a putative father, their sensibilities as men and poets too different. "

The figure of Alighieri is so important that it is cited several times in Leopardi's writings and inspired one of his early songs. Above the monument of Dante that was being prepared in Florence it was composed between September and October 1818 in Recanati, published in the same year, and takes its cue from the project to erect a monument to Dante in Santa Croce in Florence; the central theme of the song is the decay and abandonment in which Italy lies.

The choice of Dante almost as the recipient of the verses is not accidental, Leopardi sees in him the greatest Italian poet, a poet who has been able to combine political and ethical commitment with a great linguistic achievement in his work. It is Dante, Leopardi asserts in Zibaldone, who forms Italy, because he creates a literature from which the Italian language will derive.

To accompany the visitor to the discovery of Leopardi's early composition, the various editions of the Divine Comedy present in the library established by Monaldo, exhibited for the first time in a chronological itinerary in the manuscripts room. From the incunabulum in-folio of 1477 with commentary by Vellutello, passing through the prestigious in-quarter edition of 1544, embellished by the illustrations by Giovanni Britto - indexed by Leopardi himself, as evidenced by the manuscript cataloging card - up to the modern edition with the exhibition of Foscolo. A collection of valuable volumes in an unprecedented journey to rediscover a timeless classic, one of the cornerstones of Italian culture.