Abstract
Giorgio Bassani in 1955-1956 and Piero Chiara in 1970-1971 measure themselves in the film adaptation of I promessi sposi. Both of them are inclined to make explicit what Manzoni had left implicit as regards the toponymic matter («Olate» for «paesello» or «paese»). But if Bassani seems to aim at an overall essen- tial onomastics, Chiara uses literary inventiveness («Bari» for «Rimini»), philolog- ical recovery of the source («Chiuso» probably taken from Fermo e Lucia) and the equivocal nominatio («Malgrate» and «Morbegno») if not sexually allusive («Lecco» and «Chiavenna»).