Speaker
Description
“Il Copernico” by Giacomo Leopardi is an ironic short treatise, written in dialogue form,
that the Italian poet wished to include in his “Operette morali” collection. However, he did
not, being aware that the treatise would have been noticed and rejected by the Neapolitan
censorship. “Il Copernico” was thus included in the collection and published only 8 years
later, when Leopardi had already passed away. How was it possible that almost 3 centuries
after the “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” publication the Copernican system was
still considered scandalous? And what did Leopardi exactly fear? Another famous Italian
writer, Luigi Pirandello, would have made the hero of one of his best known novel, answer
to those questions, some years later.
