Learning in the Zibaldone by Leopardi

Several acute observations of a pedagogical nature are present within Leopardi’s immense output. Among the themes dealt with by the poet, the habituation theory concerning human learning, elaborated in the early 1820s and featured in the Zibaldone pages, is indeed relevant. Habituation is a slow process, by which new mental attitudes and results of the most diverse nature are acquired. Leopardi assigns great importance to exercise and to individual willpower. This reflection by the poet, surely conditioned by his own personal scholarly path, may be helpful for current reflection on didactics, in some notes about learning how to write elegantly; the latter was a personal goal of significant importance for Leopardi.