I nuovi credenti

A satire in terza rima composed in Naples after 1835, and only published in 1906 (Leopardi himself, according to Ranieri, agreed that it should be excluded from the 1845 edition of the Canti).

The “nuovi credenti” (new believers) the subject of Leopardi’s contempt (here far more violent than in the Palinodia to the Florentine liberals) are the exponents of Neapolitan spiritualism, Catholics for convenience and foolishly optimistic. Very probably Leopardi refers to recognisable persons (and scholars have put forward various possible names), who gravitated around the review “Il Progresso”, among them Saverio Baldacchini. But what is more important is the overall value of Leopardi’s quips, which are first addressed at the city of Naples as a whole – where, we should not forget, his Operette morali had been censured:

... e in breve accesa

d’un concorde voler tutta in mio danno

s’arma Napoli a gara alla difesa

de’ maccheroni suoi; ch’ai maccheroni

anteposto il morir, troppo le pesa.

E  comprender non sa, quando son buoni,

come per virtù lor non sien felici

borghi, terre, provincie e nazioni. (vv. 11-8);

then to address the cultural exponents of the Neapolitan clergy.

It should be noted how in the poem Leopardi does not stop at personal polemics (typical of the literary genre), but strongly advocates his ideas on life; and how, behind a screen of irony, he underlines in such a touchingly brave way his own “diversity”:

Voi prodi e forti, a cui la vita è cara,

a cui grava il morir; noi femminette,

cui la morte è in desio, la vita amara.

Voi saggi, voi felici: anime elette

a goder delle cose: in voi natura

le intenzioni sue vide perfette.

Degli uomini e del ciel delizia e cura

sarete sempre, infin che stabilita

ignoranza e sciocchezza in cor vi dura:

e durerà, mi penso, almeno in vita. (vv. 100-9)