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Abstract:

This article deals with understanding the real boundaries of the novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) by the Italian writer of the 19^th century A. Manzoni. To the reader’s attention is, first of all, revealed the complex and compound structure of the work which consists of two separate textual parts — the novel and the short essay “Storia della colonna infame” (“History of the Column of Infamy”) — together with a whole system of illustrations entirely thought out by the same author. In the final version of the work, that dates 1840–42 and was published by Manzoni himself, words and images go together in generating a unique, entire though at the same time tripartite text. So far most of the critics do not consider the tri-une structure of The Betrothed as a major factor for understanding its real meaning. However, the author wanted to see it realized exactly in that way, and thus came after he had worked on his text for more than ten years significantly changing it more than once. This article proposes a general view on the illustrations of The Betrothed, created by the artist Gonin (with some other craftsmen he directed) together with Manzoni and is also a first attempt of analysis and classification. Considering the constant intervention of Manzoni in the work of the artists and the way he was determining even the smallest details of the drawings’ realization (techniques, methods, colors, sources, position concerning the relation image-image and imagetext), directly participating in the process of creation of the vignettes, we support the thesis that the illustrations of the novel appeared and function as a very specific type of commentary by the author of the work to its own text.