De Omnibus Rebus et Quibusdam Aliis: Leopardi’s Zibaldone di Pensieri

Abstract

More than twenty years ago I took part in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar for professors that was held in Rome, where we spent the summer studying Renaissance art in the churches and museums – especially the Vatican museums. Our group consisted of eleven art historians and one comp lit and history of ideas guy (me), so the group was pretty polyglot, with plenty of overseas experience, and there was an ongoing competition to see who was the most brilliant and knowledgeable – about language, about history, about art, about experience. While studying the frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which were undergoing restoration that year, our group was addressed by an Italian scholar who gave us an introduction to the Chapel.