“Stendhal era francese o milanese?”. Ricerche d’archivio sullo «Stendhal a Milano» di Gian Pietro Lucini. Con l’edizione genetica del saggio «In torno a Stendhal e agli Stendhaliani d’Italia»

At the turn of the 19th century, Milan was the cradle of a growing admiration for Stendhal. Gian Pietro Lucini played a major role in collecting documents regarding Stendhal’s stay in Milan. The Lucini Archive at the Como Municipal Library contains hundreds of documents meant to contribute to a volume – which was never written – devoted to Stendhal’s biography and a critical discussion of his works. Lucini signed a publication contract in 1899 and the volume was announced repeatedly; however, the Archive only contains notes and an essay dealing with the contemporary reception of Stendhal’s works. As noted by Luigi Foscolo Benedetto, those documents do not contribute greatly to the study of Stendhal but are very interesting to gain insight into Lucini’s work method and political ideology.