Gli Sposi promessi – Storia milanese epilogata nel 1824

Abstract

An unpublished apocryphal summary by Fermo and Lucia, made into Manzoni’s circle, by an unidentified author, kept at Villa Manzoni’s Museum in Lecco is published here for the first time in diplomatic edition. It throws new light on the rading of the novel before Manzoni’s review for Gli Sposi promessi (Second Draft). The text, according to the original onomastics (Fermo, Count of the Churchyard, “The Lady”), has several exclusive episodes of the first draft, then deleted, but features northern linguistic marks, then lacking in Manzoni's text, and some copy error. It demonstrates the existence of a non-easily readable antigraph, whence some places left by the copist, and corrected only at a later time by another hand. This is a particularly interesting document, in addiction with the first draft, copied a few pages later, of the Lettera al D'Azeglio, which will be edited in the next issue of the “Annali Manzoniani”.