The Carducci–Chiarini correspondence in the National Edition of the Works

Abstract

The first part of the essay illustrates the structure of the new edition of the correspondence between Carducci and Chiarini, highlighting its philological and exegetical complexity. It also emphasizes the nature of their exchange and relationship, showing how, despite his deference toward his illustrious friend, Chiarini displays freedom of judgment and literary independence, ultimately developing a poetics of his own. The second part of the essay retraces the years of correspondence covered in the first volume, Carteggio Carducci-Chiarini (1855-1862), sketching a portrait of the interlocutors, underscoring the stylistic features of their letters, and revisiting their main themes and the ways they shifted over time, between intellectual dialogue and everyday life.