A famous playwright and patriot, Niccolini wrote «Nabucco» between 1815 and 1819, when it was published in London, thanks to the mediation of Gino Capponi: «an allegorical tragedy [...] saw in the protagonists Nabucco, Mitra and Arsace the representations respectively of Napoleon, Pius VII and Lazare Carnot» (I. Veca, DBI, vol. 78, 2013).
This copy ends with two pages in a contemporary hand, including the "Key to the Understanding of Nabucco" and an indication of the connections between the tragedy's characters and historical figures. The political-Risorgimento reading of the tragedy influenced and enthralled many, including Verdi himself, who in 1841 returned to the story, setting Solera's libretto to music for the masterpiece we all know. But Niccolini's text appears even more audacious and revolutionary, a text worth rediscovering.
The provenance of the copy is illustrious: Luigi Repossi, a famous Italian politician and revolutionary, founder of the Communist Party, member of the Communist International, exiled anti-fascist, etc.