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 [...] which saw in the protagonists Nabucco, Mitra and Arsace the representations respectively of Napoleon, Pius VII and Lazare Carnot» (I. Veca, DBI, vol. 78, 2013).
The present copy has at the end two pages of a contemporary hand with the "Key to the understanding of Nabucco" and the indication of the correspondences between the characters of the tragedy and the historical figures. The political-Risorgimento reading that was given to the tragedy influenced and enthralled many, including Verdi himself who in 1841 returned to the story by setting Solera's libretto to music for the masterpiece that we all know. But Niccolini's text appears even more audacious and revolutionary, a text to be rediscovered.
The provenance of the copy is illustrious: Luigi Repossi, famous Italian politician and revolutionary, founder of the Communist Party, member of the Communist International, exiled anti-fascist, etc.