SOURCE: "Conclusion: Manzoni and Nicolini—1820-1823," in The Controversy on Romanticism in Italy: First Phase, 1816-1823, S. F. Vanni, 1959, pp. 135-48.

In the following essay, Avitabile summarizes the literary debate that raged between classicists and Romantics in Italy during the early nineteenth century.

By 1820 the classico-romantic controversy in Italy had receded and had almost achieved the status of belonging to the past and could, therefore, be viewed with historical perspective. Nicolini, in a lecture delivered at the University of Brescia in 1820, says:

Now that the passions have calmed down, now that we are enjoying a truce if not peace, now that the two camps have abandoned their arms if not actually shaken hands, the time is ripe to meditate calmly upon the dispute, to tell the story and to evaluate the result of the literary schism, to investigate its causes, to examine each point, distinguishing those dictated by...