The dates written by Manzoni on his manuscript of Fermo e Lucia (preserved in the Sala Manzoniana of the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan), indicate the time span of his work on what he called the prima minuta of his novel went from 24 April 1821 to 17 September 1823. The other dates indicated on the manuscript are 28 November, for the beginning of the third volume (four volumes were planned), and 11 March 1823 as the completion date. We know, however, from his letters and those of his friends, that the draft proceeded irregularly, at least in the early phase. After writing the first Introduzione (the second one was written upon completion of the work) and the first two chapters, Manzoni set the novel aside and devoted himself to writing the Adelchi, not touching the draft of his novel until after November 1821. It also seems that his projected novel was set aside to allow him to work on a new tragedy, the Spartaco. It appears that Manzoni experienced increasing difficulties in writing narrative writing, particularly on account of the language question, and it was only after April 1822 that he returned fully to his novel. In a letter of 29 May, he told Fauriel that he was “immersed” in his novel and its historical setting in seventeenth century Lombardy. The actual writing progressed slowly, however, and in June, Manzoni complained of this in a letter to Grossi (who at the time was working on a historical epic on the Crusades), telling Fauriel in September that he was still in the middle of the second volume, at the story of the nun of Monza. This slow pace was a natural consequence of the intertwined narrative, which dealt first with the village component of the novel before moving on to the more complex relationship between history and invention. From November 1822, once the dense second volume was completed, with its to “novels” on Gertrude and the Innominato, work on the draft progressed at a much faster rate, also because Manzoni had completed his rewriting of the Pentecoste.

The first page of the “prima minuta”, with the start date of the draft in Manzoni’s hand [in L’officina dei Promessi Sposi, edited by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Arnoldo Mondatori, 1985, p. 28]