WorkAlessandro Manzoni

I promessi sposi [The Betrothed]

I promessi sposi [The Betrothed] (Milan: Ferrario, 1827), Inferred

Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873) · Milan: Ferrario, 1827

AnalyzedReadMentioned

Documented 1835–1847

Letters • Essays • Journals

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed1record

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1835—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p220

analyzed · read

“Have I ever asked you whether you had read Manzoni's Lucia and which of his two priests you prefer.”

Fuller, Margaret. "To James F. Clarke, 1 February 1835." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 219–222. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller names the author (Manzoni) and principal characters (Lucia, Borromeo, the curate) from Manzoni's I promessi sposi; Fuller identifies Borromeo as her favorite character and says she has "become rather intimate with Manzoni," threatening to "persecute you with extracts" and confirming sustained, deep engagement.

1840—

Journal 1840

p10

readManuscript page

“Lucia and Renzo, the best of bright and dark— I have all the letters ready to my hand, only the connecting links are to be supplied by me.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (85); Box 5 (85).

Inferred The title is named implicitly through the unique character pair Lucia and Renzo,

1847—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p281

analyzed · read

“Manzoni has spiritual efficacy in his looks; his eyes glow still with delicate tenderness, as when he first saw Lucia, or felt them fill at the image of Father Cristaforo.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Hudspeth identified Manzoni was "best known for his I promessi sposi." The two named characters are unique to this novel

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XV.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XV.”

mentioned

“So deep is the impression made by a simple natural recital, like that of Renzo’s wanderings in the Promessi Sposi, that the memory of his hearing the Adda in this way occurred to me at once, and the Adda seemed familiar as if I had been a native of this region.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . XV." New-York Daily Tribune, .