"Dualism" of Arrigo Boito

The article deals with Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), an Italian poet and composer, a representative of the Milanese scapigliatura, a literary movement of the 60s - 70s, 19th century. For the first time in the Russian literary scholarship, it studies the ideas that inspired his work and explains the causes of his limited productivity both in the field of music and literature.