La rivista Le Prime Letture (1870-1878): la formazione di giovani lettori “virtuosi e cólti del pari”

After the unification of Italy, children’s literature also developed thanks to the support of newly founded magazines for young readers. Inspired by English and French magazines, they actively participated in the debate on the Italian language. They welcomed Manzoni’s directives towards the use of the upperclass Florentine dialect to form the basis for modern Italian by focusing on the everyday language of people, instead of the literary language (Marazzini, Breve storia). The post-unification political and cultural context led the liberal class to develop a pedagogical project around the need to promote continued literacy at school and at home (De Fort). One of the magazines that decidedly supported this was Le Prime Letture, founded in Milan in 1870 by Luigi Sailer to last only until 1878, when it evolved into the florentine Giornale per i bambini after a few years. This essay wishes to explore the editorial strategy of Le Prime Letture, as well as the literary relevance of its collaborators, all prestigious protagonists of the educational field at that time. For example, the short stories by Giulio Tarra, who was then the director of the Milan Institute for the Deaf and Dumb; or the plays by Felicita Morandi, director of the Female Orphanage in Milan. Sketches and dramas complete the list, written by Ulisse Poggi, a fine literary figure close to florentine cultural circles that eventually merged into the Marzocco. Emilio De Marchi and Policarpo Petrocchi’s writings deserve a special mention together with Antonio Stoppani, who anticipated in the magazine some chapters of his book Il Bel Paese (1876). Sailer was able to provide a unified linguistic direction, accepting proverbs and idiomatic expressions, or even regional lexicon in order to guide towards a mature and competent use of modern Italian. To this end, the magazine used accents on words to help readers know how to pronounce open or closed vowels. Le Prime Letture reflected the ideal of the “civil man” as outlined by Cesare Cantù and detailed by Sailer in his editorial, so that the young could grow “not good and ignorant, nor cultured and wicked, but virtuous and cultured in equal measure.