"In 1816 a violent literary quarrel engulfed Bourbon Restoration Italy. On one side the Romantics wanted an opening up of Italian culture towards Europe, and on the other the Classicists favoured an inward-looking Italy, based on its Greco-Roman roots. Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), a young poet and philosopher, wrote a "Discourse of an Italian on Romantic Poetry" in 1818, aiming to contribute to the debate from a new perspective ; it was finally published in 1906." (source : 4e de couv.).