'L'Anima della villa toscana': Gabriele D'Annunzio at the Gamberaia, 1896 and 1898

摘要

Two entries under the heading 'Ariel' in the taccuino or notebook of Gabriele D'Annunzio dated 27 and 28 April 1896 describe what were probably the poet's first visits to the Gamberaia and the thoughts, images and sensations elicited by this very personal experience. Some two years later, D'Annunzio recorded in another notebook, under 16 May and 20 June 1898, the impressions and reminiscences from other visits. Since that time, the taccuini containing these entries have been published in the national edition of D'Annunzio's collected writings, but they have been mentioned only marginally in connection with his literary work, overlooked in essays on D'Annunzio as critic and interpreter of gardens, and never taken into account in studies of the Villa Gamberaia itself. The present paper is simply a brief introduction to these topics, but it may offer new insights and suggest new directions of research, for D'Annunzio's descriptions of the Gamberaia not only capture and transform into poetic images the lyric and dramatic qualities of the gardens, but also provide unique testimony on their condition in the years 1896--98. In particular, a passage in one of the entries enables us to date, for the first time with any certainty, the beginning of the changes that Princess Ghyka made in the design of the parterre.