Iosif Brodskii v Rime. Tom 1: Putevoditelˊ; Tom 2: Poeziia, Proza, Grafika; Tom. 3: Trudy i Dni by Iurii Leving

Abstract

Reviewed by: Iosif Brodskii v Rime. Tom 1: Putevoditelˊ; Tom 2: Poeziia, Proza, Grafika; Tom. 3: Trudy i Dni by Iurii Leving Zakhar Ishov Leving, Iurii. Iosif Brodskii v Rime. Tom 1: Putevoditelˊ; Tom 2: Poeziia, Proza, Grafika; Tom. 3: Trudy i Dni. Edited by Mikhail Milˊchik. Izdatelˊstvo Perlov Design Center, St Petersburg, 2020. 477; 479; 463 pp. Illustrations. Notes. ₽2200.00; ₽2200.00; ₽2200.00. In early 1981, Joseph Brodsky came to Rome as a resident of the American Academy. It was the poet’s first extended stay in the Eternal City and gave a tremendous boost to his creativity, resulting in a substantial body of work dedicated to or inspired by Rome. The more time passed, the more deeply [End Page 554] Brodsky plunged into the study of Rome’s culture and history. Essays dedicated to Horace and Virgil, eclogues written after the latter, poems evoking Ovid, Catullus and Propertius are all works of Brodsky’s mature period — all inspired by Ancient Rome and his stays in the modern city. While Brodsky’s love affair with Italy is known, its significance is still not as well understood as it deserves to be. Yuri Leving’s three-volume set, therefore, is not only a welcome addition to the growing list of works dedicated to the poet’s Italian sojourns, but also the most extensive study to date on Brodsky’s visits to Rome. It reconstructs the circumstances and atmosphere surrounding those visits, traces their topography, and uncovers a number of hitherto unknown interactions between Brodsky and fellow Americans, Italian locals, other Europeans and fellow Russian émigrés, which shed new light on the importance of Italy for the poet. The book set caters to multiple audiences at once, giving it a somewhat heterogenous organization. Volume One is conceived as a guide to Brodsky’s Rome and includes a map of the poet’s favourite spots in the city, ranging from personal to artistic to culinary. Volume Two features a selection of Brodsky’s own works written in and about Rome, reproduces poetry drafts, including occasional poems, and includes unpublished prose drafts, Russian translations of Brodsky’s Italian interviews and reprints of Brodsky trivia, such as occasional drawings and postcards to friends, as well as materials related to Brodsky’s last Italian project — the founding of the Russian Academy in Rome. One-third of Volume Three (pp. 23–147) is dedicated to a detailed commentary on an archival trove — the poet’s calendar from 1981 (the year of Brodsky’s most prolonged stay in Rome), which Brodsky used partly as a diary, partly as an organizer. The third volume also contains various annexes, such as Brodsky’s postcards and some photos taken in Rome and, finally, interviews with Brodsky’s friends and associates conducted by Leving. To this reader, the interviews represent the most fascinating part of the three volumes. The book set was commissioned as part of a series of books of photography, using images and some introductory texts and quoted poems, to acquaint readers with places important to Brodsky. Venetsiia Iosifa Brodskogo (St Petersburg, 2010) — its only precursor dedicated to Brodsky’s other beloved Italian city, Venice — was authored by Mikhail Milˊchik, a St Petersburg art historian and personal friend of Brodsky. Milˊchik, the founder of the series, is also the editor of Leving’s book. This explains the continuities in visual ambition manifested in an extensive use of photographic images in high-quality resolution, creating a similar aesthetic appeal. As a result, like Venetsiia Iosifa Brodskogo, Leving’s three-volume book is quite easy on the eye, but inevitably heavy in the hand. Leving’s undertaking, however, is more ambitious, which is reflected not only in the increased number of volumes, but also in the comprehensiveness of the gathered materials about Brodsky’s stays in Rome. [End Page 555] Every researcher knows that fitting a wealth of meticulously excavated materials into one book — let alone three — can be a daunting task. Creating a hierarchy for a guidebook is a challenge on a whole different scale. Leving’s solution is to follow the order of his own somewhat forensic study. Thus, paradoxically, the...