Pascoli si diverte. Frecciate onomastiche per amici e colleghi, dalle lettere (alcuni assaggi)

Abstract

During his lifetime Giovanni Pascoli took great pleasure in changing and distorting the names of friends, colleagues, schoolboys into humorous ‘speaking’ names (mostly in letters), aimed at obtaining ludic-parodic effects (for false friends) or, on the contrary, at showing affection and friendliness (mainly for schoolboys). My paper analyzes the processes of these onomastic transpositions for some of Pascoli’s more important correspondents (some of them homonymous), such as Manara Valgimigli, Gabriele Briganti, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Guido Biagi, Guido Mazzoni, Luigi Valli, Luigi Pietrobono, Luigi Siciliani and Emma Corcos.