The Babylonian economy in the sixth century BC: economic growth in an imperial context
After overviewing previous studies on Ancient Mesopotamian economic history and
their methodology, this paper surveys the principal characteristics of the Babylonian economy in the «long sixth century» between the fall of the Assyrian empire (612 BC) and the Babylonian revolts against the Persian king Xerxes in 484 BC. These phenomena – in particular demographic growth, the intensification of agricultural production and an increasing monetization and market-orientation of economic exchange – are cast into the mould of an explanatory model that sees a conjuncture of several independent demographic, social, economic and political factors (Babylonian imperial domination over much of the Middle East) which led to a period of «Smithian » growth. The growing prosperity of Babylonia in this period is reflected in price and wage data and in the material culture and consumption patterns. The structural factors described in the paper distinguish the economy of the Babylonian Iron Age in fundamental ways from its Bronze Age precursors and establish a strong link of continuity with Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean economies.

From the anti-Spanish revolt of Naples to a dream of liberty
The three review essays in this section were presented at a discussion of Rosario Villari’s book, Un sogno di libertà. Napoli nel declino di un impero 1585-1648 (Milano, Mondadori, 2012) on 19 February 2013 as part of the Doctoral Course in History at the University of Naples Federico II. John Marino discusses Villari’s work together with the one of John Elliott, as he considers them both among the most important contributors to the history of seventeenth-century Spain for their collection of original sources in investigating the political life, ideas, and actions of the time. Machiavelli and his ideas on how to govern a republic provide the guiding principles for Marino’s reflections. Giovanni Muto retraces the main points in the political developments associated with the explosive events of July 1647 in order to draw a detailed comparison between Villari’s original 1967 book on the origins of the anti-Spanish revolt and this new publication, which completes the story of the revolt to its conclusion. Muto examines some significant changes, which as a result of new documentation and additional research, have revised some of Villari’s original interpretations that were tied to the historiography of the 1960s. Anna Maria Rao examines Villari’s research on the revolt of 1647 and its maturation from 1967 to the present time in relation to the more general historiographical debates on the theme of revolts in the Old Regime by placing in relief the originality of Villari’s position and his ability to anticipate approaches and themes employed by successive scholars. The overall picture drawn from the different perspectives adopted by the three reviews reveals the many riches of a book that is very important not only for the history of Naples and Italy, but for that of Europe in the seventeenth century.

From the anti-Spanish revolt of Naples to a dream of liberty
The three review essays in this section were presented at a discussion of Rosario Villari’s book, Un sogno di libertà. Napoli nel declino di un impero 1585-1648 (Milano, Mondadori, 2012) on 19 February 2013 as part of the Doctoral Course in History at the University of Naples Federico II. John Marino discusses Villari’s work together with the one of John Elliott, as he considers them both among the most important contributors to the history of seventeenth-century Spain for their collection of original sources in investigating the political life, ideas, and actions of the time. Machiavelli and his ideas on how to govern a republic provide the guiding principles for Marino’s reflections. Giovanni Muto retraces the main points in the political developments associated with the explosive events of July 1647 in order to draw a detailed comparison between Villari’s original 1967 book on the origins of the anti-Spanish revolt and this new publication, which completes the story of the revolt to its conclusion. Muto examines some significant changes, which as a result of new documentation and additional research, have revised some of Villari’s original interpretations that were tied to the historiography of the 1960s. Anna Maria Rao examines Villari’s research on the revolt of 1647 and its maturation from 1967 to the present time in relation to the more general historiographical debates on the theme of revolts in the Old Regime by placing in relief the originality of Villari’s position and his ability to anticipate approaches and themes employed by successive scholars. The overall picture drawn from the different perspectives adopted by the three reviews reveals the many riches of a book that is very important not only for the history of Naples and Italy, but for that of Europe in the seventeenth century.

From the anti-Spanish revolt of Naples to a dream of liberty
The three review essays in this section were presented at a discussion of Rosario Villari’s book, Un sogno di libertà. Napoli nel declino di un impero 1585-1648 (Milano, Mondadori, 2012) on 19 February 2013 as part of the Doctoral Course in History at the University of Naples Federico II. John Marino discusses Villari’s work together with the one of John Elliott, as he considers them both among the most important contributors to the history of seventeenth-century Spain for their collection of original sources in investigating the political life, ideas, and actions of the time. Machiavelli and his ideas on how to govern a republic provide the guiding principles for Marino’s reflections. Giovanni Muto retraces the main points in the political developments associated with the explosive events of July 1647 in order to draw a detailed comparison between Villari’s original 1967 book on the origins of the anti-Spanish revolt and this new publication, which completes the story of the revolt to its conclusion. Muto examines some significant changes, which as a result of new documentation and additional research, have revised some of Villari’s original interpretations that were tied to the historiography of the 1960s. Anna Maria Rao examines Villari’s research on the revolt of 1647 and its maturation from 1967 to the present time in relation to the more general historiographical debates on the theme of revolts in the Old Regime by placing in relief the originality of Villari’s position and his ability to anticipate approaches and themes employed by successive scholars. The overall picture drawn from the different perspectives adopted by the three reviews reveals the many riches of a book that is very important not only for the history of Naples and Italy, but for that of Europe in the seventeenth century.

Giorgio Ferigo, a historian outside academia
Giorgio Ferigo (1949-2007) was not a professional historian: he was a socially engaged physician and musician. Nevertheless he produced excellent essays on the demographic, cultural, religious, and social history of the mountainous region of Carnia in northeastern Italy. When they appeared in the mid-1980s, his first essays on these themes (now collected in Le cifre, le anime. Scritti di storia della popolazione e della mobilità in Carnia, ed. C. Lorenzini, Udine, Forum, 2010, and Morbida facta pecus… Scritti di antropologia storica della Carnia, ed. C. Lorenzini, Udine, Forum, 2012) marked a turning point in the investigations provided by local and general historians on this topic. They basically considered the demographic history of the alpine communities through a qualitative approach, linking social, economic and cultural issues very closely together. Ferigo also studied the heterodox groups that inhabited the Carnia during the late sixteenth century, the forms of literacy, especially in relation to migratory practices, and the region’s economic activities (weaving, woodworking). Giorgio Ferigo’s approach is strongly associated with an anthropological perspective and particular attention to local circumstances, but in a much more general framework.

Religious policies and political planning in angevin Naples. The Santa Chiara monastery
The Santa Chiara monastic complex may be considered the symbol of the intertwining between religious policies and aspirations as well as the political planning achieved in Naples in the first half of the fourteenth century. Robert of Anjou and his wife, Sancia of Majorca, conceived the church as a unitary structure, as a presentation and a symbolic transfer of the court within a sacral space and, at the same time, as a celebration of the monarchy’s role. Furthermore, King Robert’s desire to create a distinctive religious symbol of the city’s image and urban space resulted in a building that stood out from all other churches for its imposing size. Queen Sancia, for her part, was most involved in regulating the female monastic community.

Kautsky and the socialist revolution (1891-1899). Review of a historiographical question
For a long time, especially in Italy, the historical judgment on Kautsky as established by Marxist historiography reproached him for having championed a conception of the class struggle based on a strict opposition between the proletariat and other social groups. According to this interpretation, a conception of this kind would have kept German Social Democracy from building a united front of forces capable of changing the political system of Wilhelminian Germany into democracy, as an essential stage toward socialism. This article, which investigates the development of Kautsky’s political positions during the final decade of the nineteenth century, points out how, to the contrary, he was convinced that the achievement of democracy in the German Empire was the necessary precondition for proletarian rule, and that such a goal could be gained with the collaboration of other progressive forces. At the same time, it also distances itself from scholars who have asserted Kautsky’s intransigence over the idea that the institutions of liberal democracy were the indispensable instrument for the exercise of power by the working-class party, and shows how his conceptions about what institutional shape the «dictatorship of the proletariat» would take changed over time: the initial conviction that such a power would be founded upon parliament vanished during the revisionist controversy.

The conditional release of Antonio Gramsci
While it is generally accepted that Antonio Gramsci ruled out with the utmost determination any idea of signing a petition for pardon, it has recently been suggested that his willingness to submit a plea for conditional release had much the same implications in terms of repentance or submission. When this thesis was aired, reactions were immediate, pointing out both the inconsistent and contradictory aspects and the fact that it clashed with Gramsci’s firm and repeatedly shown stand against taking any steps that might be interpreted in this way. In this paper we examine in detail the issues involved, illustrating the normative framework that applied in Italy in the 1930s to regulate access to conditional release and the procedures actually followed by the authorities concerned in the examination of petitions for conditional release submitted by political prisoners. Through this investigation we bring light to bear on the procedures Gramsci chose to follow in drawing up and submitting his petition for release, and the significance that can be attributed to the petition itself and to the reply received from Mussolini.

The International Centre for the defence of Catholic rights in Palestine
During 1932, Luigi Barlassina, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, concerned by the weakness of Catholicism in the Holy Land, proposed creating an International Centre to defend Catholic rights in the region. In his proposal, the Centre would be established in a neutral Catholic country, and would be able not only to influence international public opinion but also to oppose the dangerous innovations being introduced by the mandatory government. Such an idea was received in various different ways by Vatican diplomats, among whom were some that were very sceptical about the possibility of setting up this new institution. These dubious attitudes were, in any case, overridden by the open support that Pius XI showed for Barlassina’s project from the very start. After this approval, Pizzardo, secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, contacted Micara, apostolic Nuncio to Brussels, and instructed him regarding the construction of the new Centre. Micara began work immediately, and in a few months was able to create a solid structure, involving many representatives of the
Belgian Catholic establishment in its constitution. Despite this good start, the Centre had very limited activity, due to Barlassina’s authoritarian character and his desire to control all the Centre’s activities, limiting the initiatives of the Belgian supporters. The International Centre for the defence of Catholic rights in Palestine achieved few concrete results: despite this, the constitution of the new institution, and the way in which it occurred, are useful for understanding the Holy See’s attitude towards Zionism and the Palestinian issue during the first half of the 1930s.

Dino Gentili, Comet and the trade dialogue between Italy and China (1952-1958)
During the 1950s, when official diplomatic relations between Italy and Communist
China were absent because of the Cold War status quo and as a consequence of the Korean conflict, Dino Gentili, a socialist trader linked with the Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party, Pietro Nenni, established some lasting commercial trade with the PRC and tried to prompt the government to provide unofficial but effective support. At the time, informal talks and short-term commercial agreements existed between European countries and China, foreseeing the possibilities of helping the industrialization process of such a vast country. The strategic opportunity for Italy to be involved in such affairs, notwithstanding CoCom’s threats, was matter of discussion raising both concerns and consensus in both the political class and institutional circles, whose reactions changed throughout the decade towards less restrictive attitudes. Although this essay does not deal exhaustively with the Italian-Chinese trade issue, the Gentili affair shows how commercial possibilities thus became a highlight of the pending key points before the bilateral normalization (1970) that closed old questions and imposed
new expectations.

Postcolonial Italy’s new projections towards Africa
This essay deals with an issue little addressed by contemporary historiography: Italy’s policy towards Africa in the years of decolonization. During the 1960s and 1970s, as perceptions of a colonial crisis, considered irreversible, took shape, emerging forces of various orientations brought about a new commitment to the newly independent countries and their leaders, with new roles and interventions being tried out not only in the former colonies of the Horn of Africa, but also in different areas of sub-Saharan Africa, up to the development of a policy of cooperation within the new Euro-African relations established with the Treaty of Rome of 1957. This setting saw the increased involvement of new actors and politicians of various orientations, who in the name of party affiliation, or in institutional form, dedicated a major commitment to the new season in Africa. Beside them, a new projection by the Holy See, youth movements of solidarity and missionary organizations, took shape under the impetus of the Second Vatican Council.

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