«Dios quiere que tu España sea Recanati, y tu legitimo superior el prudentissimo Conde Monaldo». Giuseppe Mattia De Torres e Monaldo Leopardi (1784-1821)

The essay focuses on Giuseppe Mattia De Torres (1746-1821), a Jesuit native of Mexico who was exiled to the Papal States after the expulsion of the Company of Jesus from Spain. His name is related to the Leopardi family, where he lived for many years as a private teacher: his pupils were Monaldo, the poet Giacomo’s father, and, for a very short time, Giacomo himself. Through the analysis of printed and handwritten texts, the essay aims to reconstruct De Torres’ biography and study the relationship he had with Monaldo in a perspective which privileges the influence of his Jesuitical teaching and his Mexican culture on Monaldo’s literary production, from the Montezuma tragedy to other political and militant writings.