Journey to Tuscany

Tuscany and Florence< were compulsory destinations for any writer interested in the language question that tormented Manzoni (both as linguist and novelist). In mid-July 1827, the entire family – mother, wife, husband, children (except for little Filippo) and five servants – set out on the trip (during which one of the carriages fell down an escarpment), making several long stops on the way. Giulietta, the oldest at almost twenty, provided a detailed account in her letters to her cousin Giacomo Beccaria. While her father (a reserved letter-writer) mentioned no literary meetings in his letters to friends, Giulietta expressed her enthusiasm at finally seeingnthe great Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine. In Pavia< the Manzoni family visited their confessor, Monsignor Luigi Tosi, now Bishop of Pavia. In Genoa<, where Manzoni met Stendhal (who held his novel in high esteem), their stay was especially enjoyable, and they decided to prolong it so that Henriette could bathe in the sea water as prescribed by her doctors. In Pisa they met the spiritualist writer Xavier de Maistre, author of a book entitled Voyage autour de ma chambre which Manzoni admired. After a fairly long stay in Livorno, for more sea bathing, the family arrived in Florence< at the end of August. Here Manzoni frequented the group of liberal-moderate intellectuals that gathered around Gian Piero Vieusseux and the famous Antologia journal. He also met Leopardi and developed warm friendships with Giovan Battista Niccolini, Pietro Giordani, Giuseppe Borghi, and especially Gaetano Cioni, who was Manzoni’s most assiduous consultant in the linguistic revision of his novel. Manzoni had brought many copies of his recently-published Promessi Sposi with him, and sold almost all of them. The novel’s success was clear, but distribution by the booksellers had not sufficed, and demand in Tuscany was high.