Historical culture and political reform in the Italian Enlightenment / Marco Cavarzere.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cavarzere, Marco, author.

Series:

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 0435-2866 2020:09.

Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 0435-2866 ; 2020:09

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politics and culture--Italy--History--18th century.

Politics and culture.

Antiquarians.

History.

Italy--Civilization--18th century.

Italy.

Civilization.

Italy--Civilization--Classical influences.

Italy--Politics and government--1559-1789.

Politics and government.

Enlightenment--Italy.

Enlightenment.

Antiquarians--Italy--18th century.

Italy--Politics and government--18th century.

Civilization--Classical influences.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 335 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Liverpool, England] : Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, [2020]

Summary:

For centuries the society and politics of Old Regime Europe relied on the strong connection between past, present, and future and on a belief in the unstoppable continuity of time. What happened during the eighteenth century when the Age of Revolutions claimed to cancel the previous social order and announced the dawn of a new era? This book explores how antiquarianism provided new political bodies with allegedly time-hallowed traditions and so served as a source of legitimacy for reshaping European politics. The love for antiquities forged a common language of political communication within a burgeoning public sphere. To understand why this happened, Marco Cavarzere focuses on the cultural debates taking place in the Italian states from 1748 until 1796. During this period, governments tried to establish regional "national cultures" through erudite scholarship, with the intent of creating new administrative and political centralization within individual Italian states. Meanwhile, other sectors of local societies used the tools of antiquarianism in order to offer a counter-narrative on these political reforms. Ultimately, this book proposes a localized way of reading antiquarian texts. Far from presenting timeless knowledge, erudition in fact gave voice to specific tensions which were linked to restricted political arenas and regional public opinion. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 A country under construction p. 17

Pushing Italy (and the world) aside p. 24

Nations and patrie p. 30

Languages of Italy p. 40

Chapter 2 The importance of being erudite p. 53

The Muratorian moment p. 55

Antiquarianism and political identities p. 66

Erudition and society p. 76

Chapter 3 Institutional settings p. 91

Public policies of communication p. 95

Aristocratic circles p. 112

Communication short circuits p. 127

II Difficult transitions

Chapter 4 Naturalizing sovereignty: law and history p. 137

"The national king" p. 140

Conflicting kings p. 145

National laws p. 152

A century without Rome p. 174

Chapter 5 The land of Italian nations: space and history p. 189

Geography and politics p. 192

Chorographic debates p. 197

Antiquarian cartographies p. 209

Ritual geographies p. 219

Chapter 6 Historical representation: collective memory and history p. 231

Hard times for state historiography p. 233

New media: heroic genealogies p. 244

National history on stage p. 261.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-327) and index.

ISBN:

1789622034

9781789622034

OCLC:

1144095457