Sesto tomo dell’Io (Sixth Tome of I)
The posthumous work known as Sesto tomo dell’Io (or, according to some publishers, Frammenti di un Romanzo Autobiografico - Fragments of an Autobiographical Novel) is made up of around 20 signed sheets of paper containing fragments of prose of various nature and length, probably written by Foscolo around 1801. The title comes from Avvertimento (Warning), in which Foscolo exposes a project to narrate a year of his life, the sixth since the end of his adolescence: “Comprende questo tomo il mio anno ventesimoterzo dal 4 maggio del 1799 sino a’ 4 maggio del 1800” ("This tome is comprised of my 23rd year from May 4 1799 to May 4 1800"). The dates frame a period of Foscolo's life when his political and military activism was at its peak and includes two battles that the "writer warrior" had taken part in near to Bologna and Genoa. So Sesto Tomo was written in the same years as the tormented preparation of Ortis and is dedicated to himself (“Rispetto alla dedica del libro, io la offro a me stesso” - "As regards the book's dedication, I offer it to myself"), it is a varied, hazy self-portrait that goes back and forth between the serious and humorous, and is distant from the monolithic coherence of Ortis, representing a sort of move in the opposite direction. As opposed to the extreme political and moral tension that characterizes the figure of Jacopo Ortis, here is a more intimate, relaxed portrait, inclined to make light rather than emphasize contrasts.
The small number of fragments contain recollections, political and existential reflections, meditations on exile and on being distant: the full range of common Foscolo themes is here, brought down in tones that are sometimes ironic, sometimes emotional and affectionate, sometimes apologetic and argumentative. Foscolo expresses himself in the first person under the pseudonym from Ortis, Lorenzo.
The letter to Psyche, which is dominated by light, earthy tones infused with sensuality and passion that recall the letters sent to Antonietta Fagnani Arese of the same period, also belongs to Sesto tomo dell’Io.
