Historical and autobiographical elements
Tomasi di Lampedusa's coat of arms features a serval, a smaller cat than a leopard.The novel contains both historical and autobiographical elements. During the time he was writing, Tomasi stated in a letter to his friend Baron Enrico Merlo di Tagliavia that Don Fabrizio, the "'Prince of Salina is the Prince of Lampedusa, my great-grandfather Giulio Fabrizio,"[a][23] but also (in a letter to Guido Lajolo) "friends who have read it say that the Prince of Salina bears an awful resemblance to myself."[24] While Don Fabrizio's circumstances and many of his traits are clearly those of di Tomasi's great-grandfather, this is not necessarily so true of his opinions. In a further letter to Lajolo, after he had written more of the novel, Tomasi doubled down on the autobiographical aspect of the character: "Don Fabrizio expresses my ideas completely."[24] David Gilmour, in his biography of Tomasi, sees the character as mainly autobiographical but adds that there is also a fair amount of "the person the writer would like to have been" in Salina's "arrogant confidence, his overt sensuality, his authority over others..."[25]
Similarly, Tomasi wrote to Merlo di Tagliavia that that "Tancredi is, physically and in his behavior, Giò [Tomasi's adopted son Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi]; morally a blend of Francesco Lanza Spinelli di Scalea and his son Pietro."[23] To Lajolo, he wrote, that in terms of appearance and habits, Tancredi is "a portrait of Giò; as for his morals, however, Giò is fortunately very much better than him."[24] In his circumstances and actions, Tancredi also owes a lot to Giulio Fabrizio's nephew, Corrado Valguarnera, and to some of the latter's friends and associates.[26] Some of the reaction against the book by Sicilian aristocrats came from their taking Tancredi and his wife Angelica as "portraits of Corrado Valguarnera and his wife Maria Favara," then being unhappy that they were not accurate portraits. Gilmour remarks that the discrepancies from these historical figures are "not surprising because [Tomasi] had not tried to make them very similar."[19]
Some of the strongest historical and autobiographical elements of The Leopard are in the portraits of the places of Tomasi's life, especially his childhood. The town of Donnafugata is certainly Santa Margherita di Belice (near Palma di Montechiaro) and the palace there the Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò,[23] though considerably larger and more elaborate than the original.[27] Villa Salina outside Palermo is the Villa Lampedusa in Lorenzo outside Palermo.[27] The Palazzo Lampedusa in Palermo does not appear in the novel, although several of its rooms do.[27]
Despite being universally known in English as The Leopard, the original Italian title is Il Gattopardo, "The Serval",[28] the name of a much smaller species of cat found in Sub-Saharan Africa.[29] The symbol on the Tomasi di Lampedusa coat of arms is a serval.[28]
Locations
Two Sicilies at the time of The Leopard- Sicily
- The Kingdom of Sardinia
- The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Map)
- Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
- Salina – the fictional Corbèra palatial estate in San Lorenzo, about five miles north of the center of Palermo.[30]
- Donnafugata – the fictional name for the town Santa Margherita di Belice (near Palma di Montechiaro) and the Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò.[23] Both the palace and adjacent Mother Church were destroyed by an earthquake in 1968.
Historical characters
- Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807−1882), the military leader of the Expedition of the Thousand (11 May to 1 October 1860) from Marsala in Sicily to northern Lazio (Campania)
- Ferdinand II, a Bourbon King of The Two Sicilies. Reigned from 8 November 1830 to 22 May 1859. Died shortly before the narration of The Leopard begins. The Bourbons ruled the kingdom from Naples and lived in the Caserta Palace.
- Francis II, the last Bourbon King of the Two Sicilies. Reigned from 22 May 1859 to 20 March 1861.
- Victor Emmanuel II, Savoy King of Sardinia from 23 March 1849 to 17 March 1861, and King of Italy from 17 March 1861 to 9 January 1878. Resident at the Royal Palace of Turin.
Fictional characters
The Corbera Family:
- Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, born 1810[31]
- Maria Stella, Princess of Salina
- Carolina, eldest of seven children, born 1840
- Francesco Paolo, eldest son and heir, born 1844
- Concetta, second daughter, born 1848[32]
- Tancredi Falconeri, orphan son of the prince's sister, born 1834
- Bendicò, the family dog
Others at Salina:
- Father Pirrone, Jesuit family priest; helps the prince with mathematical computations
- Pietro Russo, steward
- Ciccio Ferrara, accountant
- Mademoiselle Dombreuil, governess
Characters at Donnafugata:
- Calogero Sedàra, Mayor of Donnafugata
- Angelica, Calogero's daughter, born 1844
- Monsignor Trotolino, priest at Holy Mother Church
- Ciccio Genestra, notary
- Onofrio Rotolo, steward
- Toto Giambono, doctor
- Ciccio Tumeo, organist at Holy Mother Church; hunting partner of the prince
- Count Carlo Cavriaghi, friend of Tancredi from Lombardy
- Knight Aimone Chevalley di Monterzuolo, bureaucrat from Piedmont
