Autografi nieviani alla Biblioteca degli Intronati a Siena: il fondo Bacci e il fondo Porri

Abstract

The files dedicated to Péleo Bacci and Giuseppe Porri housed at the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena contain four uncatalogued letters by Ippolito Nievo. The oldest (dated 17 August 1852) is addressed to Carlo Tenca and is bound together with the complete autograph copy of the polymetric poem Il Crespuscolo, which exists in a printed edition from 1852 and in two autograph fragments housed at the Biblioteca Civica Vincenzo Joppi in Udine. There are also two letters to men to whom Nievo addressed other correspondence, one to Vicenzo De Castro (19 September 1856) and the other to Cesare Calabi (12 May 1858). The last autograph is an undated and unaddressed note of condolence written by Nievo to the son of a recently deceased marquess. Thanks to the clues emerging from the note, together with knowledge of the author’s family ties and friendships, it is possible to date the note to 1855 and to identify the addressee as the marchese Girolamo di Colloredo, whose father (Fabio) had held ties of friendship and esteem with a very young Nievo, as attested by the letters from the elderly marchese housed at the Joppi Library.