Leopardi manuscript pulled from auction

Questions surround authenticity of 'The Infinite'

(ANSA) - Ancona, June 26 - A manuscript of Giacomo Leopardi's famous poem The Infinite was pulled from auction in Rome on Thursday, possibly for questions of authenticity. The early-19th-century poem of the Romantic's yearning to travel was put on the block with a starting bid of 150,000 euros by Minerva Auctions. The news of its withdrawal was announced by the culture assessor of the central Marche region, where Leopardi was from. It was unclear if the manuscript simply found no bidders or if concerns were raised about whether it came from Leopardi's hand. "It earned us time to deeply analyze the manuscript," said Marche Councilor Pietro Marcolini.

Two other confirmed manuscripts of the poem are known to exist in Naples and Visso, in Marche. The manuscript up for auction was discovered by the culture director in the town of Cingoli, Marche among the papers of a private collection. The Infinite Always dear to me was this solitary hill and this hedge, which, from so many parts of the far horizon, the sight excludes. But sitting and gazing endless spaces beyond it, and inhuman silences, and the deepest quiet, I fake myself in my thoughts; where almost my heart scares. As the wind I hear rustling through these trees, I, that infinite silence, to this voice keep comparing: and I feel the eternal, the dead seasons, the present, and living one, and the sound of her. So in this immensity drown my own thoughts: and sinking in this sea is sweet to me.