From Invention to History

Abstract

Agostino Carli Rubbi died in March 1825; the first volume of Manzoni’s great novel came out that year, after numerous delays, under the title Gli Sposi Promessi. The secret relationship between the archivist and the novelist ended, and Manzoni could now definitively consider the trial records conserved in Venetian archives as a “Storia milanese”. The novel was destined for great success, but the novelist always kept secret the source that had inspired it, even if he was aware that he had written a work in which history and fiction were not clearly distinct. In his essay, Del romanzo storico [On the Historical Novel], he paradoxically criticised all works that mingle history with fiction, as only history was able to integrate truth with verisimilitude. This is indeed a surprising affirmation on the part of the author of one of the greatest European historical novels, but it was perhaps meant to express self-criticism of his personal treworking of the 17th century trial that no one knew about yet.