Antonio Ranieri
Antonio Ranieri (Naples 1806-1888), of noble birth, had to take exile in France, England and Tuscany for his liberal ideas. He later became a member of parliament and a senator, as well as a professor at Naples university and a writer.
He met Leopardi in Florence in June 1828, and the two became all but inseparable from September 1830 on; from October 1831 to March 1832 they lived in Rome, where Ranieri had followed the actress Maddalena Pelzet (in any case keeping up his correspondence with Fanny Targioni Tozzetti), and from October 1833 they lived in Naples until Leopardi died.
The judgement of scholars of Leopardi on Ranieri is perforce divided: on the one hand he has been criticised for publishing Sette anni di sodalizio con Giacomo Leopardi/Seven Years of Friendship with Giacomo Leopardi (Giannini, Naples 1880), a highly inelegant self apology in which the no longer youthful Ranieri, very upset at his sister Paolina’s death, described the efforts, the costs, and the pain that the two would seem to have suffered in assisting an ungrateful Leopardi. On the other hand, however, there is the admiration for the many merits Ranieri acquired during Leopardi’s life, assisting him through to the end, and also and above all after the death of the poet: first and foremost for having saved his body from being buried in a communal burial ground (he was buried in the church of San Vitale a Fuorigrotta), but above all for having kept his manuscripts and looking after the publication of the first two volumes of the Opere (which among other things include Canti, Operettas and Pensieri/Thoughts, and a Notizia intorno agli scritti, alla vita ed ai costumi di Giacomo Leopardi/Information on the works, life and habits of Giacomo Leopardi by Ranieri) with Le Monnier, in Florence in 1845 (the third volume was overseen by Giordani). In this circumstance Ranieri proved to be most energetic, working hard to ensure that neither the publisher nor the censors might somehow betray Leopardi’s last wishes.
Nor can we forget the judgement of Ranieri that Leopardi himself wrote in his Pensiero IV:
Un mio amico, anzi compagno della mia vita, Antonio Ranieri, giovane che, se vive, e se gli uomini non vengono a capo di rendere inutili i doni ch’egli ha dalla natura, presto sarà significato abbastanza dal solo nome ...
A friend, of mine, indeed my lifelong companion, Antonio Ranieri, youth who, if he lives, and if men do not render useless the talents nature has bestowed upon him, will soon become famous by his name alone ...
