Il dialogo di Manzoni con Bossuet negli anni della formazione religiosa

Luciano Parisi, Boston College

Abstract

This study shows how Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) read and used the work of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) in the years between his return to Catholicism (approximately 1810) and the publication of his masterpiece, the novel I promessi sposi (1827). It also takes into consideration other French Catholic writers of the XVIIth century (Bourdaloue, Massillon, Nicole, and Pascal), and the Italian clergymen who introduced them to the converted Manzoni. The first chapter analyzes the findings of previous studies, and explains how the research on Manzoni's Jansenist background was ideologically biased and sometimes misleading. It then outlines the reasons that made the French writers of the XVIIth century particularly important for Manzoni: the triumph of the Enlightenment in European culture, the French revolution, the consequent crisis in the Catholic church and theology reduced the chances for an authentic religious thought at the time of the Bourbon Restoration. The interest of Manzoni for Bossuet goes through three different stages. Initially the young Manzoni is deferential before the respected French theologian; reproduces with little originality some of Bossuet's arguments against the Protestants and in defense of a fixist interpretation of doctrine (chapters 2, and 3); and avoids the discussion of Bossuet's political teachings that were unacceptable to him (chapter 4). In a second stage Manzoni is more concerned with religious feelings than doctrine, does not carry on any controversy against the Protestants, and admits the mistakes made by Catholics, including among them the support to parties in power. These stands imply a partial estrangement from Bossuet (chapter 5). Manzoni moreover does not completely share the pessimism of the French bishop on salvation (chapter 6); and openly disagrees with his aesthetic reflections (chapter 7). In a third stage, after completing his spiritual formation, Manzoni goes back to Bossuet's writings, looking for thematic and stylistic suggestions that he introduces in his poems (chapter 8) and in the novel (chapter 9): paradoxically, by freely expressing his own spirituality, Manzoni gives now his most meaningful reading of Bossuet's teachings.

Recommended Citation

Luciano Parisi, "Il dialogo di Manzoni con Bossuet negli anni della formazione religiosa" (January 1, 1998). Boston College Dissertations and Theses. Paper AAI9828029.
http://escholarship.bc.edu/dissertations/AAI9828029