Antonio Rosmini                                             

Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855), a priest from Rovereto, was the third of Manzoni’s confessors, and the one of the highest intellectual and moral calibre. After completing studies in law and theology at Padua, Rosmini developed an interest in philosophy, encouraged by Pope Pius VII. When he met Manzoni in 1826, a deep friendship began, as testified by the Rosmini correspondence. Two years after his second marriage, Manzoni began to take his holidays at the villa in Lesa, on Lake Maggiore. With Rosmini residing in the nearby village of Stresa, they took to visiting each other and going for walks together along the lakeshore. Rosmini admired “the images and noble sentiments” of the Promessi Sposi, which he read even before 1827. Manzoni was very struck by Rosmini’s first important work, the Nuovo saggio sull’origine delle idee (1831), and told him that he agreed with his critical interpretation of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy, at the same time expressing, with the sincerity characterizing their close friendship, his difficulty in conceptualizing the “idea of being” that for Rosmini formed the basis of all other ideas. At least initially, their opinions on the origins of language also diverged, since Manzoni’s perspective remained coherently anti-Sensist throughout, but unlike Rosmini’s, also anti-nativistic. Nonetheless, their differing points of view on certain issues encouraged the two friends to reflect further on matters of faith and philosophy. Rosmini’s thinking encouraged Manzoni to reconsider the old problem of history versus invention, between “historical truth” and “poetic truth”: his Del romanzo storico and Dell’Invenzione both show traces of Rosmini’s teaching. Influenced by Manzoni’s writings and objections, Rosmini modified his ideas on language and until the end of his life continued to meditate upon his own philosophical system. His Teosofia was published posthumously.