Please take a moment and let me introduce you to: Giacomo Leopardi and Antonio Ranieri's partnership.

Leopardi was an italian poet, author, philosopher and philologist. He is an important figure in Romantic literature (albeit, he did criticize the Romantic worldviews).

All throughout his life he suffered from a debilitating chronic illness (juvanile ankylosing spondylitis) that had him suffer horrendously from a young age, until it eventually took his life in 1837, when he was 39 years old.

He dedicated most of his life to studies, translating old tomes, writing poems and treaties diverting on humanity's degeneration from our glorious past to our suffering present. He exhorted modern folks to take action against the unjust present, aiming to a revolution of our pitiful condition.

In 1827 Leopardi meets Antonio Ranieri a young man that is described (verbatim) as a "very young and handsome in person and spirit".

Ranieri had been exiled from his city during his youth, because of his excessively liberal views in regards to politics.

The two become very close friends, but it's in 1830 that their "partnership" (literally, not making this up, Ranieri himself wrote a book about it if you care to check it out "Seven years of partnership with Giacomo Leopardi") starts. They move together from Firenze to Naples and Ranieri attends to Leopardi's every wish (noted that this man was a fanatic for sweets) paying with money from his own pocket.

Now, friendship at the time was different than what it is now, and they might’ve been very close friends, yes. But I'll give you some words from their letters and what Ranieri wrote down in his book and leave it to your judgment.

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Ranieri, Naples, 1833:

"I- left my own bed- used to sleep in a room that was not mine (scandalous at the time) to sleep by his side"

Leopardi, Florence, 1832-33, from when they got separated because Ranieri needed to tend to some family issues:

"My Ranieri, you will never abandon my side, nor will your love for me grow colder. I don't wish for you to sacrifice yourself for me. In fact, before anything else, I strongly wish for you to take care of yourself first: whatever you choose to do, you will do it so because we live for one another, or I know that I do for you; my last and only hope. Farewell, my soul. I keep you close to my heart, which in both possible and impossible occurrences, will forever be yours"

Leopardi, Florence, 1832-33, on someone making a joke out of Ranieri for staying by Leopardi's side:

" [...] Oh, my Ranieri! When will I get you back? I won't stop trambling until I'll recover this immeasurable love, until I know it's true. Farewell, my soul, with all my spirit's strength. Don't get bored of loving me"

And more:

"Ranieri of mine, I need not say that in every way you wish, I will be there with you (...). My resolution has been so for a great time now: that I will never be parted from you. Farewell"

In 1833, Ranieri sends a letter where he says he intends to set off to get Leopardi and go live together in Naples, to which Leopardi answers:

"My Ranieri, will this [letter] reach you in Naples still? I must warn you, I cannot live without you no longer, I'm overtaken by a morbid impatience to see you again, and that I am sure that if you will be late, I will die from the malencholy of not having you still. Farewell, Farewell"

Ranieri, on the landlady that took them in in Naples:

"She revealed this: that I had introduced a consumptive in the house: that, loving him so much as to stay up at night by his side, there could be no reason I could not do that as well in mine own house"

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So now, take it as you will- because maybe I am way too much of a nerd about this stuff- but I can't read ANYTHING Leopardi and Ranieri related without seeing Viktor and Jayce. I will gladely add more in the future.

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Addition! If you want to watch/read on them (but mostly Leopardi, which is a catch) I STRONGLY advice you:

Leopardi. Il poeta dell'infinito - I don't personally love it but if you want more on them, thats the place

Il giovane favoloso - AMAZING movie

Canti - by Leopardi, it is a collection of poems he wrote and I think it is absolutely useful to understand his marvelous mind and character

Lettere di Giacomo Leopardi ad Antonio Ranieri pt 2 📚🩵

Non sono tutte racchiuse in questi due post, ho riportato le più interessanti

Mia cara Fanny

La specie di dolore ch’io sento non fu mai sentita da nessun uomo, perchè mai non fu e mai più non sarà fra gli uomini un’amicizia uguale a quella che mi stringeva al mio adorato Leopardi. [...] com’è possibile di non credere al male in questo infausto pianeta, se Iddio, o il caso, o il fato, o qualunque sia questo potere cieco e tirannico che ci governa, ha potuto consentire che si desse al mondo un amore, una necessità simile a quella che era fra Leopardi e me, e che uno di noi fosse condannato a sopravvivere all’altro! [...]

Egli mi spirò fra le braccia [...] non credendo, insino all’ultimo istante, di dover passare, finchè un secondo prima non mi disse: Addio, Totonno, non veggo più luce. Io gli accompagnai il polso che salì lentamente, finchè fu spento, gli collai le mie labbra sulle sue, che già fredde non risposero più a’ miei baci, e così mi persuasi che non era più."

RAI MI RACCOMANDO A CIÒ CHE FAI RAI

In questo studio, si menzionano "centinaia" di perlopiù brevi lettere che Leopardi scrisse a Ranieri durante i periodi della loro amicizia in cui vissero momentaneamente separati; ma nell'Epistolario ne ho lette non più di qualche decina: che fine fecero le altre? O meglio: perché Ranieri le distrusse? Allo stesso modo, egli ritenne di distruggere numerose lettere indirizzate a Leopardi dai fratelli Carlo e Paolina, e dal filologo e amico Louis De Sinner. Senza dubbio Ranieri amò Leopardi: ma non era un amore scevro dal secondo fine di unire il proprio nome al suo per averne lustro e fama. Per tutta la vita, infatti, Ranieri fu un gran fanfarone (perdonami, Totonno 😅) e uno che cercava di tirare acqua al proprio mulino, anche raccontando spudorate menzogne ("esule" e "patriota" lo fu, ma non eroicamente, bensì all'acqua di rose). Inoltre, dalle testimonianze storiche pubblicate nello studio, si evince che egli ebbe una venerazione morbosa per la propria sorella Paolina, con manifestazioni di affetto che vanno ben oltre quelle ritenute opportune verso una sorella. Nelle lettere tra i due, le espressioni di cocente affetto, simili a quelle che nella corrispondenza Leopardi-Ranieri vengono considerate "prove" del loro legame omosessuale, abbondano. Egli fu donnaiolo nella prima gioventù e, dopo, solo finché era insieme a Leopardi; in seguito, egli si trincerò nell'amore ideale verso la sorella, smettendo del tutto il suo abito di seduttore.