An epistle in hendecasyllables, composed at Bologna in March 1826, it was recited by Leopardi at the Accademia dei Felsinei in Bologna, of which Pepoli was the vice-president. It was first published in the Bologna 1826 edition (with the title Epistola al conte Carlo Pepoli; then with the definitive title as of the Florence 1831 edition).
At the beginning of the work, which is constructed along the lines of works by Horace and Parini, Leopardi evokes some reflections from the Zibaldone, the Discorso sugli Italiani and the Ottonieri concerning the need people who do not have to work for a living have to occupy their time:
Ma noi, che il viver nostro all’altrui mano
provveder commettiamo (= “affidiamo”), una più grave
necessità, cui provveder non puote
altri che noi, già senza tedio e pena
non adempiam: necessitate, io dico,
di consumar la vita: improba, invitta
necessità ... (vv. 44-50)
In verses 63-99, are listed various ways of employing life so as to escape boredom: there are those who pass their time taking care of their appearance and social life (vv. 63-77), those who travel “throughout the orb” (vv. 78-87), those who embark upon a military career (vv. 88-93) and those who enter commerce (vv. 95-9). But all of them labour in vane: it is not these activities that can kill “boredom and sorrow”.
In the last part of the Canto Leopardi looks at the choice made by Pepoli, and his own: if Pepoli has opted for the “study of verse”, for poetry, this for Leopardi is no longer possible, he having lost his youthful illusions: he is left with the study of “bitter truth”, philosophy (even if this reflection will lead to his being unpopular with others):
... E se del vero
ragionando talor, fieno (= “saranno”) alle genti
o mal grati i miei detti o non intesi,
non mi dorrò, che già del tutto il vago
desio di gloria antico in me fia (= “sarà”) spento: (vv. 150-6).
Al conte Carlo Pepoli
