Caro Giovannino... Caro Cagnone: note di onomastica scapigliata, tra citazioni e riscritture

Abstract

In the context of the ‘Scapigliatura’ movement in the region of Piedmont, the figure of Achille Giovanni Cagna is particularly interesting: a self-taught and enthusiastic writer, he discovered his poetic vein thanks to the fortunate encounter with Giovanni Faldella, after the «worrisome beginnings» reported by Contini (1953). This paper aims at stressing the onomastic relationships in the works of these two authors, highlighting the evolution of their repertoire and the changes in the naming practice. Autograph corrections approved in the subsequent edition of the Bozzetti and the critical thinking documented by the epistolary exchanges, help to assess the progressive abandonment of clichés typical of sentimental literature in favor of a more disenchanted observation of truth.