Ragguaglio d’un’Adunanza dell’Accademia de’ Pitagorici (Report of a meeting of the Pythagorean Academy)

In the spring of 1810 Foscolo published an article Sulla traduzione dell’Odissea (On the translation of the Odyssey) in “Annali di Scienze e Lettere” which belonged to a review of the Traduzione de’ due primi canti dell’Odissea (Translation of the first two books of the Odyssey) by Pindemonte, although in reality it was a polemical work against the Milanese literary figures and their foremost member, Vincenzo Monti. The collection that was critical of the translations of Homer, in which literary figures of the calibre of Cesarotti and Algarotti were not spared, in truth became a pretext for an attack on the literary figures close to world of power who dominated the Milanese cultural scene in that period and who had already been the subject of criticism in the Pavia lectures. War between Foscolo and the Milanese literary figures had been declared; Foscolo replied to the polemical newspaper articles that followed from his detractors, who scolded him for obscurity, plagiarism and arrogance, in June 1810, again in “Annali di Scienze e Lettere”, with Ragguaglio d’un’adunanza dell’Accademia de’ Pitagorici (Report of a meeting of the Pythagorean Academy), which was published as an extract by the publisher Bernardoni under the title Atti dell’Accademia de’ Pitagorici (Acts of the Pythagorean Academy). It is a written parody, presented as Frammenti di un libro incompiuto (Fragments of an incomplete book), packed with allusions, not all of which can be deciphered today, in which the writer pretends to describe a meeting of a group of academics that Milan's most socialite, salon-loving literary figures hide behind as they discuss an article about translations of Homer. The satire of the discussion enables Foscolo to reiterate his theories and polemize with his enemies (including the hated Urbano Lampredi), while also introducing general reflections on the relationship between literary figures and power and the moral responsibility of a man of letters. Ragguaglio was followed by other fragments, including Ultimato di Ugo Foscolo nella guerra contro i ciarlatani, gl’impostori letterari e i pedanti (Ugo Foscolo's ultimatum in the war against charlatans, iterary impostors and pedants), which remained incomplete.