On leaving Florence in the autumn of 1827 he went to Pisa, and there wrote some of his finest poems, among them Il Risorg irnento and A Silvia. Want of means drove Leopardi back, in Nov. 1828, to Recanati, where, deaf, half-blind, sleepless, tortured by incessant pain, at war with himself and every one around him except his sister, he spent the two most unhappy years of his unhappy life. In May 1830 he escaped to Florence, where he formed the acquaintance of a young Swiss philologist, de Sinner. To him he confided his unpublished philological writings, with a view to their appearance in Germany. A selection appeared under the title Excerpta ex scizedis criticis J. Leopardi (Bonn, 1834). The remaining mss. were purchased, after de Sinner's death, by the Italian Government, and, together with Leopardi's correspondence with the Swiss philologist, were partially edited by Aulard.
In 1831 Leopardi's friends subscribed for the publication of all his poems previously printed, with some addi tions, Canti (Florence, 1831). This volume placed him at once among the greatest lyric poets of the century, and made him fa mous throughout Europe. Leopardi was now driven from Florence to Rome by an unhappy attachment for Fanny Tozzetti Targioni. He had made acquaintance with a young Neapolitan, Antonio Ranieri, who went with him to Rome, and befriended him thence forth. Unfortunately, in his old age Ranieri wrote a spiteful ac count of Leopardi's life in Naples. But at the time he was a good friend. Leopardi accompanied Ranieri and his sister to Naples, and under their care enjoyed four years of comparative tran quillity. He made the acquaintance of the German poet Platen, his sole contemporary rival in the classical perfection of form, and composed La Ginestra, the most consummate of all his lyrical masterpieces. He also wrote at Naples I paralipomeni della Bat racorniomachia, The Sequel to the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a satire in ottava rima on the abortive Neapolitan revolution of 1820, clever and humorous, but obscure because of the local nature of the allusions. He died on June 15, 1837.
Leopardi's lyrics have been studied and re-studied since his death. His genius is incommunicable, but his technique has in fluenced all his successors.
principal editions of Leopardi's works are those of A. Ranieri (2 vols., Florence, 1845) ; the diamante edition of the poems by G. Mestica (Florence, i886) ; an edition of the poems with notes by R. Fornaciari (Florence, 1889 and frequently reprinted). Among editions of the prose works may be mentioned: Giacomo Leopardi, operette morali con proemio e note, ed. G. Gentile (Bologna, 1918) ; and Pensieri di varia filosofia e di belly letteratura di Giovanni Leopardi, ed. G. Carducci (7 vols., Florence). His correspondence was first published in 1849; the standard edition is G. Leopardi, Epistolario raccolto e ordinato, ed. P. Viani (3 vols., Florence, 1892).
English translations of the poems are those by F. H. Cliffe (1893) ; J. M. Morrison (1900) ; L. de'Lucchi (1922), and G. L. Bickersteth (Cambridge, 1923). Bickersteth's book contains a life, critical appre ciation and full bibliography. There are admirable translations of the essays and dialogues by James Thomson, ed. B. Dobell (1905) ; by G. C. Edwardes (1882) in vol. xvii. of the English and Foreign Philosophical Library; and by P. Maxwell (1905) in the Scots collec tion of Great Writers series.
See especially G. Chiarini, Vita di Giacomo Leopardi (Florence, 1921) ; G. Carducci, Degli spiriti e delle forme nella poesia di Giacomo Leopardi Considera zioni, in vol. xvi. of G. Carducci's Opere (1898) ; F. de Sanctis, Studio sul Giacomo Leopardi (7th ed., 1921). In English see the editions referred to above ; also W. E. Gladstone, "Giacomo Leopardi" in Gleanings of Past Years, vol. ii. (1879) ; and C. H. Herford in Shakespeare's Treatment of Love and other Essays (1921).