Historical culture and political reform in the Italian Enlightenment

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

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For centuriesthe society and politics of Old Regime Europe relied on the strong connectionbetween past, present, and future and on a belief in the unstoppable continuityof time. What happened during the eighteenth century when the Age of Revolutionsclaimed to cancel the previous social order and announced the dawn of a newera? This book explores how antiquarianism provided new political bodies withallegedly time-hallowed traditions and so served as a source of legitimacy forreshaping European politics. The love for antiquities forged a common languageof political communication within a burgeoning public sphere. To understandwhy this happened, Marco Cavarzere focuses on the cultural debates taking placein the Italian states from 1748 until 1796. During this period, governmentstried to establish regional “national cultures” through erudite scholarship,with the intent of creating new administrative and political centralizationwithin individual Italian states. Meanwhile, other sectors of local societiesused the tools of antiquarianism in order to offer a counter-narrative on thesepolitical reforms.Ultimately, thisbook proposes a localized way of reading antiquarian texts. Far from presentingtimeless knowledge, erudition in fact gave voice to specific tensions whichwere linked to restricted political arenas and regional public opinion.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2020-09-14
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
Vikt953 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieOxford University Studies in the Enlightenment
Antal sidor352
FörlagLiverpool University Press
ISBN9781789622034

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List of figuresIntroductionConceptsContentsI. BackgroundChapter 1: A country under constructionPushing Italy (and the world) asideNations and patrieLanguages of ItalyChapter 2: The importance of being eruditeThe Muratorian momentAntiquarianism and political identitiesErudition and societyChapter 3: Institutional settingsPublic policies of communicationAristocratic circlesCommunication short circuitsII. Difficult transitionsChapter 4: Naturalizing sovereignty: law and history“The national king”Conflicting kingsNational lawsA century without RomeChapter 5: The land of Italian nations: space and historyGeography and politicsChorographic debatesAntiquarian cartographiesRitual geographiesChapter 6: Historical representation: collective memoryand historyHard times for state historiographyNew media: heroic genealogiesNational history on stageConclusion: an unfinished transitionBibliographyIndex

‘Wide-ranging and insightful… this book has achieved the not so small feat of offering an original interpretation of the culture of antiquarianism across the Italian peninsula. Rich in both insights and material, it has the enviable merits of helping to set an agenda for new work on the politics of scholarship in the age of Enlightenment, as well as introducing Italy’s eighteenth century to a broader public, which it will enthrall with its grand overview of historical culture from the medium of the book to that of the stage.’ Barbara Naddeo, Journal of Modern History