Fermo e Lucia is the title traditionally given to the prima minuta (the “first draft”), namely the text that Manzoni wrote between 1821 and 1823 (and left in manuscript form) before going on to turn it into the Promessi Sposi, which was published for the first time between 1825 and 1827, and re-published, in 1840-42, after linguistic revision, in its definitive form. The first draft of the novel is quite different from the later versions, both in structure and in the depiction of the major characters and minor characters. The names of the protagonists are also different (here they are called Fermo Spolino and Lucia Zarella). As regards the plot, the first draft divides Fermo and Lucia’s story into two distinct parts, as though they were independent of each other. First Lucia’s adventure is narrated, from her stay with the nun of Monza to her abduction and release after her abductor’s conversion. Then Renzo’s adventures in Milan are recounted. Some of the major characters have a different story and even a different name from the published version. The story of the nun of Monza, which occupies only two chapters in the Promessi Sposi, is spread over six chapters in the first draft, since the story of Geltrude (later called Gertrude) is full of bleak and gruesome details (later eliminated) modelled on the European “gothic novel”. The converted brigand (later called the Innominato, but in this first draft known as the Count of Sagrato), with his many adventures, is a much more “novelistic” character. At the end of the Promessi Sposi, Don Rodrigo lies wretched and dying in the Lazzaretto, and pitied by Renzo, but in the first draft he is a raving lunatic galloping off on horseback, urged by some diabolic fury. Moreover, some episodes added to later drafts are completely missing from Fermo e Lucia: there is no colourful description of “Renzo’s vineyard” (Promessi Sposi, Chapter XXXIII), for example, and also missing are all those small but irritating events that spoil the “happy ending” in the Promessi Sposi (Chapter. XXXVIII).

“Fermo e Lucia”, Vol. II, Chapt. X, f. 109, with annotations by Ermes Visconti  [in L’officina dei Promessi Sposi, edited by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Arnoldo Mondatori, 1985, p. 30]