[Manuscript] - Pindaro - Platone - Storia di filosofia - Orazio- Metrica - 1920-1924

Handwritten notebooks and papers of Ernesto Lo Franco
History of philosophy, Pindar, Plato, classical and modern literature – 1923-1927 and beyond
Rare and substantial corpus of handwritten school material belonging to Ernesto Lo Franco.

Notebook format about 20.5 × 15 cm.
Includes several bound notebooks (some with illustrated covers typical of the era: “Tavola Pitagorica”, “Science dispels the mists of the mind – Let us honor it!”, “Often vanity borders on ridicule”) and a substantial set of loose sheets and autonomous fascicles.

Condition: good, with normal signs of use and some marginal folds/tears consistent with age.

Content
The material documents a high-level classical and literary studies path, predominantly from 1923-1924 (with notes from 1927 and undated pieces):
• Pindar: extensive translations, comments and analyses of the Nemее (II, III, V, VIII), Pythian and Olympian odes, with historical introductions, genealogical tables and metrical and stylistic notes.
• Plato and the History of Philosophy: notes dated March 26, 1927 on astronomical, mathematical and moral themes (references to Phaedo, Anaximander, Pythagoreanism).
• Latin literature: exercises and versions of texts such as Thallus, Paedagogium, Fanum Apollinis, Pomponia Graecina; detailed study of the Orazio’s Metrica/orazian metrics (sapphic, dactylic and other metrical forms in Horace’s Odes).
• Greek metrics: scansion and analysis of Archilochus and other authors (patterns of iambic, trochaic, dactylic meters).
• Italian and humanistic literature: transcriptions and comments on Leonardo Aretino’s Dialogues (addressed to Pietro Istiano); original or exercise pieces, including the evocative “Colloquio collà luna” and notes on Psyche (with references to Ruskin and Grecian religion); other passages such as “Rights of youth.”
• Other scattered notes on history, mythology (Prometheus, Pandora) and composition.

The handwriting is clear, dense and methodical, with evident signs of thorough study and exercises in translation and composition in Latin, Greek and Italian.

Importance and rarity
This is an exceptionally complete and rich set for private school material from the twenties. Not mere routine notes, but an organic corpus that documents postwar Italian classical teaching: Greek (Pindar), Latin (Horace and prose, with particular attention to Horatian metrics), ancient philosophy (Plato), metrics, humanistic literature and personal composition (including “Colloquio collà luna” and reflections on Psyche).

Rarity is high due to:
• the quantity and variety of material (notebooks + numerous loose sheets);
• the density and quality of content (translations, metrical scans, comments, original pieces);
• nominative attribution and precise dates;
• documentary value for the history of secondary and university education in Italy.

Items of this kind, so ample and coherent, are rarely seen on the antiquarian market and are sought after by manuscript collectors, historians of education, classicists and enthusiasts of humanistic culture.

Ideal for collectors of school manuscripts, specialized libraries or scholars of the history of schooling and classical literature.