Manzoni: il pensiero nella parola. Confronto fra le Osservazioni e le pagine letterarie

This essay compares some literary writings by Manzoni with innovative additions to his second edition of Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica published in 1855, in particular those in Chapter III and its Appendice sull’utilitarismo. This comparison is invited by Manzoni’s reflections on the value of the poetic word, in which he argues that the poetic word is able “to give intuition to thought.” Starting from this idea, the essay attempts to show that Manzoni’s literary writings often anticipate his philosophical writings