Memories from Underground: Past and «Happiness of Italy» in the Dissertations of the «Famous»
Contest of 1796

The dissertations written on the occasion of the «famous» contest announced in September
1796 by the General Administration of Lombardy, to respond to the question of which
form of government best suited Italy, represent privileged sources through which to enter
the problematic horizon opened by the political usages that relate the Italian democratic
universe to the past. In the context of a functional recovery aimed at different political
visions, the essay focuses on specific thematic nodes, starting from the relationship with
Roman antiquity, understood as a fundamental piece of Italian history, often evoked in an
attempt to set up a national discourse aimed at making clear an otherness with respect to
France in the Peninsula’s path towards democracy. The image of France – the first State in
history that seemed able to deviate from the policies of conquest of the past – then appears
worthy of attention, intertwining with one of the most important questions raised by the
contest: the choice between unity and federalism, accompanied by arguments that also follow
backward paths.

Keywords: 1796 Contest, Classical antiquity, Italian history, Unity, Federalism.

Parole chiave: Concorso del 1796, Antichità classica, Storia d’Italia, Unità, Federalismo.

A Current Past: History in the Republican Press during the Triennium 1796-1799

The essay aims to examine the role played by the past in the republican press at the end
of the 18th century, focusing on the Italian peninsula and adopting a perspective of comparative
investigation. Firstly, an attempt is made to define the profile of the consumers of
parallels and analogies with antiquity; subsequently, the linguistic-theoretical foundations
of this rhetoric and the communicative strategies concretely implemented by journalists
are analysed. They made use of the past and its wealth of models and experiences with the
intention to control current events, which they pretended to inscribe in logical and narrative
patterns supported by historical example in order to impose their ideas and establish themselves
in the political arena. In the hands of republican journalists, the past became a tool
not only for reading the present, but also for imagining the future of the society that had
emerged from the Revolution and for trying to give direction to the changes taking place.

Keywords: French Revolution, Italian peninsula, Past, Press, Political communication.

Parole chiave: Rivoluzione francese, Penisola italiana, Passato, Stampa, Comunicazione politica.

The Ancient Model in Modern Representation: The Recovery of Classical Institutions in the
Universe of the Sister Republics

The concept of political representation, one of the most significant achievements of the revolutionary
decade and a symbol of the political superiority of the moderns, seemed to exclude
any institutional recovery from the past. However, the concrete public debates and the specific
political arrangements demonstrate that the ancient canon continued to present itself as a constant
point of reference. By examining emblematic historical cases, not only in France but also
in the universe of the so-called sister republics, it is possible to identify and decode the strategies
which, through more or less deliberate distortions, aimed at the appropriation and reuse of a
continuously evolving past, reshaped in the light of concrete political reality. The persistence
of ancient magistracies and institutions at the origins of modern representative practices will
then demonstrate the need to reconsider any dichotomy regarding the ancient political model.

Keywords: French Revolution, Sister Republics, French directory, Political institutions, History
of constitutions.

Parole chiave: Rivoluzione francese, Repubbliche sorelle, Direttorio, Istituzioni politiche,
Storia delle costituzioni.

«Nothing Is New, Everything Is Ancient»: The Sense of History in the Savoy Counter-Revolution
(1789-1799)

This paper will analyse the role of political history and religious tradition in the political
and cultural circles of the Savoyard-piedmontese counter-revolution, from 1789 to the beginning
of Napoleonic age. The proposed texts – diplomatic reports and religious sermons
– recovered the past not only a mean of condemnation and execration of the present times,
but also as an instrument to understand them, and thus to provide a representation of Piedmont
and Italy opposed to revolutionary narratives. Enhancing the creative and reactive use
of Savoy traditions during his military and political confrontation with the Revolution, the
Dynasty’s past and his religious and political history were used to fight and rationalize the
decline of the House of Savoy, recomposing the legitimacy of traditional powers through
the invention of a reactionary language and the comparison of similar past difficulties to
provide political and strategic solutions to Savoy collapse.

Keywords: Counterrevolution, Savoy, Monarchy, Italy, Religion.

Parole chiave: Controrivoluzione, Savoia, Monarchia, Italia, Religione.

The Staging of the Past: Loyalist Iconography in Italy (1793-1804)

The essay explores the role of imagery in interpreting and shaping the past during the
late 18th century in Italy, focusing on counter-revolutionary propaganda. The analysis of
engraving and caricature production highlights how these traces were used to influence
public opinion and legitimize the counter-revolution. Starting from emblematic figures
such as Louis XVI and Pius VI, the research demonstrates how political iconography was
employed to narrate and reinterpret historical events, creating an idealized image of the past
and promoting a conservative vision of society. The aim of the essay is also to show how
these dynamics are strongly linked to editorial contexts and the circulation of iconographic
documents, emphasizing their impact on society at the time and their role in constructing
historical memory.

Keywords: Iconography, Counter-revolution, 18th Century, Engravings, Pius VI.

Parole chiave: Iconografia, Controrivoluzione, Settecento, Incisioni, Pio VI.

«The Slavery of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns»: The Planters of Saint-Domingue
between Classical Antiquity and Pro-Slavery Theories

This paper analyses the use of the Classical antiquity in the works of late-eighteenth and
early-nineteenth-century pro-slavery planters of Saint-Domingue. By the late eighteenth
century, triumph of the concept of civilisation and Enlightenment critiques of system of
slavery and its philosophical and economic implications had called into question the planters’
wealth and power in the colonial societies and the outrageous treatment reserved to their
slaves. The outbreak of French Revolution, the debates on the application of Declaration of
the Rights and the starts of the civil wars in the French Antilles lead the planters to turn to
the ancient past to reject revolutionary principles of freedom and equality for enslaved black
people and to rewrite a different history of the humankind. Employing the classical past as
a comparative tool to criticise the effects of revolutionary principles, the planters invented a
new justification to defend their power and the necessity of slavery, based on exclusion and
invention of different degrees of human faculties.

Keywords: Counterrevolution, Counter-Enlightenment, Pro-Slavery theories, Classical antiquity,
History of slavery.

Parole chiave: Controrivoluzione, Anti-illuminismo, Teorie filoschiaviste, Antichità classica,
Storia della schiavitú.

Experimental Politics: the middle ages, counterrevolutionary catholics, and the politics of history, 1780s-1820s

This article traces the engagement of Catholic authors of the Counter-Enlightenment
and the Counterrevolution with historical writing. While disagreeing with Enlightenment
interpretations of European history, which tended to be critical of the Catholic church,
these authors embraced the Enlightenment view that history offered a window into
the fundamental characteristics of human nature and a powerful toolkit to analyze and
solve current predicaments. Faced with the reforming policies of enlightened monarchs,
revolutionary dechristianization, and the persistence of the Revolution’s legacy in the
Restoration era, Catholic writers looked to the Middle Ages to find alternative models
of society. Considering the cultural and social role of religion in medieval society, they
realized that appeals for the restoration of the alliance of church and state were not enough;
Catholicism itself needed to be transformed into a force that could vie for social and cultural
hegemony in the modern world – a modern political ideology.

Keywords: Enlightenment, Counterrevolution, Catholic church, Medievalism, Restoration.

Parole chiave: Illuminismo, Controrivoluzione, Chiesa cattolica, Medievalismo,
Restaurazione.

Jesuits and Slavery: The Case of Pedro Claver (1580-1654)

This article analyses the attitude of the Catholic Church, and of the Society of Jesus in particular,
towards slavery, focusing on the case of Pedro Claver (1580-1654), a Catalan Jesuit
who was beatified by Pius IX in 1850, canonized by Leo XIII in 1888, and has become a
symbol of the Catholic Church’s struggle against slavery. Pope Francis’s rediscovery of the
Jesuit is part of his vision of a Church of the humble and marginalised. However, an analysis
of the contemporary sources shows that he was far from being opposed to the slaveholding
system. As a missionary in Cartagena de Indias, Claver devoted himself to the spiritual care
of the sick, prisoners and slaves arriving at the port, one of the centres of the Atlantic slave
trade. Rather than an opponent of slavery, Claver appears to have been a hunter of souls.
Not only did he use slaves owned by the local Jesuit college, but he also aroused the suspicion
of the local Inquisition to the point of being prosecuted and condemned.

Keywords: Pedro Claver, Atlantic slavery, Jesuits, Catholic Church, Cartagena de Indias.

Parole chiave: Pedro Claver, Schiavitú atlantica, Gesuiti, Chiesa cattolica, Cartagena de
Indias.

Italian Anarchists in a Colonial Context: Niccolò Converti and «L’Operaio» in Tunis (1887-
1889)

This essay focuses on the spread of anarchism in Tunisia at the end of 19th century, especially
within the Italian community, starting from the publication of the newspaper «L’Operaio»,
the first anarchist journal in Tunisia, founded and directed by Niccolò Converti. An Italian
doctor, philanthropist, publisher and journalist, Converti arrived in Tunisia in 1887,
spending the rest of his life there and animating a political and cultural debate through his
journals. His biography allows us to better understand how and why the anarchist discourse
was able to spread successfully in Tunisia. Lastly, questioning the so-called «myth of
Italianness» – the presumed political and ideological uniformity of the Italian community in
Tunisia – from which both the «subversives» and the mass of proletarian and sub-proletarian
workers were excluded, we aim to offer a different perspective on the presence of Italians in
the French protectorate and their relationships with the Arabs.

Keywords: Tunisia, Italians in Tunisia, Anarchism, Niccolò Converti, Anarchic press.

Parole chiave: Tunisia, Italiani in Tunisia, Anarchismo, Niccolò Converti, Stampa anarchica.

The «Woodworm» and the «English Proverb»: Dostoyevsky and Gramsci’s Doubts in Prison

Starting from a very short note by Gramsci in his Prison Notebooks, which has not yet
been thoroughly studied or commented on, the article proposes to identify its source in
a precise Italian translation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. This allows for an
autobiographical and, at the same time, political reading of the note, and provides an
opportunity to shed further light on Gramsci’s obsessive fears of a supposed «betrayal» by
his own party.

Keywords: Antonio Gramsci, Fëdor M. Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment, Suspicion,
Doubt.

Parole chiave: Antonio Gramsci, Fëdor M. Dostoevskij, Delitto e castigo, Sospetto, Dubbio.

From «Fetishism» to «Neo-Humanism»: Individual, Society and Nature in Gramsci’s «Last Miscellany
»

By critically reconstructing the reflection about crisis, art and scientific rationality in the
so-called last miscellaneous notebooks that Antonio Gramsci began in prison, the Author
in the present article argues that neo-humanistic character of the philosophy of praxis
does not entail neither anti-naturalism (or non-naturalism) nor reduction of the social
relations to inter-subjective relations, as the critical literature has often claimed, but rather
the redefinition of the relationship between «individual» and «collective», «human» and
«natural», in terms of a mutual immanence.

Keywords: Immanence, Humanism, Naturalism, Historicism, Hegemony.

Parole chiave: Immanenza, Umanismo, Naturalismo, Storicismo, Egemonia.

«Being Jesuits»: A Biographical History of the Society of Jesus

The article reflects on the book by Camilla Russell, Being a Jesuit in Renaissance Italy: Biographical
Writing in the Early Global Age, Cambridge (Ma)-London, Harvard University
Press, 2022.

Keywords: Jesuits, Biographical sources, Italy, Eastern Indies.

Parole chiave: Gesuiti, Fonti biografiche, Italia, Indie Orientali.

Works and Days of Antonio Gramsci

The article reflects on the book by Romain Descendre and Jean-Claude Zancarini, L’oevrevie
de Antonio Gramsci, Paris, La Decouverte, 2023.

Keywords: Antonio Gramsci, History of Italian Communist Party, Philosophy of praxis,
Ideology.

Parole chiave: Antonio Gramsci, Storia del Partito comunista italiano, Filosofia della prassi,
Ideologia.