Autobiografismo, vocazione letteraria e «amor di gloria» nelle "Memorie del primo amore" di Giacomo Leopardi

The paper intends to clarify the bond that connects the composition of the Elegia at the end of the year 1817 (then renamed Il primo amore, starting from the Canti of 1831) to the contemporary Memorie del primo amore, which represents an early autobiographical essay and reveals the rise of a strong ambition to literary glory. The survey was extended to other similar texts of that period (epistolary included) in order to point out both sources and models of the Memorie, paying special attention to Vittorio Alfieri’s Vita.