La série “Cultura dell’Anima”, Soffici et Foscolo

In the series “Cultura dell’Anima” (1908-1938) Giovanni Papini has united a whole of philosophical and literary works which were submitted to broadly actualised interpretations and presented in a way that their content of specific “ideas” is brought forward. Soffici’s Tomo dell’io shows some evident common points with the volumes Papini dedicated to Galileo and to Machiavelli, particularly in the disposition of the pages which the Tuscan artist chose in Foscolo’s works. According to Soffici the writings of Foscolo display a substantial philosophical wisdom which emerges without intervention of great speculative theories. In common with his friend Papini, Soffici thus expresses his sceptical attitude towards the Italian philosophical culture of his time, specifically Benedetto Croce’s Philosophy of Spirit. In Soffici’s opinion, Foscolo has manifested a heroic and tragic character by opposing the stoical acceptation of his own artistic mission to the sharp awareness of a universal ‘nothingness’.