Authors:Lucia Berti Pages: 5 - 18 Abstract: In 18th-century Europe inoculation of smallpox started being practiced as a form of prevention against the disease itself. Knowledge of this practice arrived from the Ottoman Empire and reached various European countries in the 1710s. As far as Italy is concerned, the literature generally reports that the Italians took no particular interest in inoculation until the 1750s; however, very little attention has been given to the early reception of the practice in Italy. By drawing on early news items and letter exchanges between the Fellows of the Royal Society and the Italian physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri, the present paper wants to illustrate and comment on these early sources that showed the Italians’ opinions and attitudes towards inoculation when it was first heard about in the peninsula. PubDate: 2021-09-08 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12575 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Chiara Lerede Pages: 19 - 27 Abstract: The article aims to highlight the personal and social rivalries that arose within the Russian medical community, in the context of management of the Moscow plague epidemic in the years 1770-1772. The analysis of the dispute between Danilo S. Samoilovič and Charles de Mertens in the years 1778-1784, allows us to trace the personal tensions and envy between the two colleagues, where elements of nationalism and chauvinism intersect, reflecting the complex relationship between indigenous and foreign elements, typical of the Russian medical class and social élite during the Eighteenth Century. PubDate: 2021-09-08 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12598 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Marco Duichin Pages: 29 - 48 Abstract: On 2 February 1782, according to the chronicles of the time, in the Russian city of St. Petersburg 40.000 people fell ill simultaneously, struck by a sudden, mysterious epidemic of fever. That was the beginning of one of history’s greatest and most devastating influenza pandemics, which in the space of eight months swept through Europe, infecting between 50 and 75% of the population, and causing thousands of deaths. Originating in China in autumn 1781, the pandemic spread rapidly along the trade routes linking the Celestial Empire to the Tsarist Empire through the caravan cities in south-western Siberia. Called the “Chinese disease” by the Russians and the “Russian disease” by the western Europeans, the pandemic also afflicted Königsberg, the port city on the Baltic where Kant lived. The philosopher (who perhaps caught the disease in March 1782) was one of the first to draw attention to the causes of the phenomenon, consistent with his medical interests and his academic competence in physical geography. In contrast to the ‘miasmatic’ doctrine prevailing in the medicine of the time, Kant evoked the ‘contagionist’ theory of Dr. John Fothergill, and argued that the influenza spread not due to bad air quality but through contagion caused by miniscule pathogens (progenitors of viruses, at that time unknown to science) that Russian trade with China had transmitted to Europe, and that in future would cause terrible new epidemics on a global scale. This paper aims to reconstruct – on the basis of previously overlooked documents from the 18th-19th century, and in the light of the recent scientific debate on the issue – a forgotten event that presents surprising analogies with the current Covid-19 pandemic. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12610 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Elisabetta Lonati Pages: 49 - 65 Abstract: Medical reports on fevers and epidemics are an interesting research field for investigating eighteenth-century medical language. The works under scrutiny here are focused on epidemic outbreaks which were widespread especially in large and medium towns. They provide linguistic evidence for the many processes of denomination and lexicalisation of diseases, and the lexicalisation of related notions (e.g. contagion and infection), ideas (e.g. environment and social groups), and values (e.g. public health, prevention, poverty and wealth). Starting from the two keywords fever/s and epidemic/s, the aim of this study is to analyse a set of texts published in the British Isles in the last thirty years of the century and referring to contemporary events (from the middle 1760s to the end of the century), in order to discuss the processes of lexicalisation and their impact and function at discourse level. Data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively: the analysis was first carried out on a corpus-based software (focus on occurrence, frequency, collocates, patterns); whereas close reading of concordances and manual selection of extracts represent the qualitative approach and examination for interpretation and discussion of preliminary quantitative results. Medical writing often becomes the background for introducing social issues and contemporary needs and values. The study will confirm this relevant function in the changing late eighteenth-century British society. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12593 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Giulia Iannuzzi Pages: 67 - 82 Abstract: This research focuses on the perception of the effects of smallpox on the demographic decline of the native North American populations by some English-speaking writers in the eighteenth century. It highlights the awareness expressed by contemporary observers of the circulation of new infectious diseases imported from Europe into North America, and of the effects of these diseases – of which smallpox is a critical but far from unique case – on the decimation or incipient extinction of native peoples. The aim of this research is to show how this awareness favoured, in English-speaking observers, the agglutination of the category of “European”, and an urgent need to document American human diversity before its disappearance. Works by John Lawson, John Brickell, James Adair, and Cadwallader Colden are considered before dwelling on the Lewis and Clark expedition and on Thomas Jefferson’s role in the expedition’s cultural aims and interests in medicine. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12544 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Roberto Tufano Pages: 83 - 93 Abstract: In December 1741, the statesman Bernardo Tanucci wrote to prince Bartolomeo Corsini a long, very interesting letter regarding authors and readings, travel, principles and good practices of eros and agape, on which to base the training of a young Florentine knight. Tanucci’s authentic, essential and eclectic position on the matter of education strongly emerges from these pages. The educational proposal is based on three axes: a general culture plan, emphasizing historical studies and political science, whose authors are all non-conformist thinkers, or rather, considered to be the expression of the utmost criticism; a mischievous vademecum for education at the University of Pisa, where Tanucci had taught law; the right way to integrate theoretical knowledge and direct knowledge, which was to be implemented through a series of expedients, such as the experience of travelling in Europe, attending courts and exponents of the ruling classes, direct knowledge of the major intellectuals of the time, conviviality in the drawing room and, last but not least, relations with the opposite sex. With the latter point Tanucci addressed the central problem of the limits of education, namely those posed by the paradox of the « already educated educator ». Again, the relationship between Tanucci and the German intellectual world clearly emerges. This attraction derived from the great theme of eclecticism. Firstly, this method appeared to Tanucci as a useful and convenient canon for interpreting the four-way relationship between ‘civil’ and ‘ecclesiastical’ history, between philosophy and theology. Moreover, Tanucci admired the eclectic method of comparing confessional divisions, which seemed to lead to the hypothesis of the necessity of a natural and worldly religion. Eclecticism was understood by Tanucci and Genovesi – and, before them, by their common master and friend Celestino Galiani (albeit with different outcomes, tending towards radical scepticism on this last aspect) – as the sign of a sincere and creative variety of scientific results. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12376 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:María Dolores Herrero Fernández-Quesada Pages: 95 - 110 Abstract: Charles III arrived in Spain from Naples accompanied by a multidisciplinary team of military advisers, including Count Gazzola from Piacenza, who had already drawn up his plans for the urgent military reforms required for the artillery. These included the institutionalisation of that branch of the army and the foundation of the college for artillery officers and industrial engineers to run the military factories being taken over by the State. The most eye-catching element of this undertaking is the formation of its magnificent Enlightenment scientific library. A study of this library reveals an exceptional collection, the origins of the first books brought to the institution, the way it was organised and the military and scientific topics addressed. But its fundamental contribution can be measured in terms of results: indeed, textbooks were created for the cadets, as well as research works on military, artillery and scientific topics written by teachers from the college, and translations of important European scientific books. Finally, as a contribution to demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the Crown’s investment in education for war, we highlight the work of three captains, showing the versatility they achieved thanks to their education at the college and their reputation outside it, in the service of society, as guiding lights of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País (SEAP – Economic Society of Friends of the Country) in Segovia. Without this magnificent library, the research, monographs and translations – ultimately the college’s own published works which brought it great academic credit in Enlightenment Europe – would not have been possible. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12475 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Iacopo Benincampi Pages: 111 - 119 Abstract: During the 18th century, small papal towns provided few public educational opportunities in the artistic field. Young painters and architects usually joined local private workshops, attending lectures given by professionals who had instead completed their education in Rome or in Bologna. One of these professionals was the Faenza painter and architect Giuseppe Boschi (1732-1802), who produced a series of manuscripts reflecting both the local taste and the general cultural situation of the Romagna region in the last years of the ancien régime. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12281 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Patrizia Delpiano Pages: 121 - 131 Abstract: This article deals with the responses to Enlightenment history that emerged in antiphilosophique cultural circles and offers some pointers on the international dimension of this intellectual movement, so far studied mostly within the confines of individual states. Attention focuses on the case of the French Jesuit Claude-Adrien François Nonnotte (1711-1793), author of Les erreurs de Voltaire, published in 1762. After describing the essential features of this text, specifically its discourse on history, the article concentrates on its Spanish and Italian translations in order to highlight the European character of antiphilosophie and the different uses made of Nonnotte’s work in various contexts. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-11817 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Javier Gutiérrez-Carou Pages: 133 - 147 Abstract: After exploring some of the possible channels of contact between Carlo Gozzi and the sphere of Neapolitan theatre, this study presents an analysis of the points of convergence and divergence between Gozzi’s I due fratelli nimici and Francesco Cerlone’s adaptation of the same play, giving special attention to consequences of aesthetics, ideology and spectacle. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12510 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Niccolò Guasti Pages: 149 - 159 Abstract: The culture of the eighteenth century played a crucial role in proposing a positive image of Islam. The Valencian Jesuit Juan Andrés was particularly engaged in this re-evaluation of Arab culture in order to stress how much Iberian Arabs had contributed to the renaissance of Western culture and civilisation. In his treaty Dell’origine, progressi e stato attuale d’ogni letteratura (1782-1799) Andrés committed himself to outlining specific elements of the Medieval renaissance nurtured by Spanish Arabs between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. His interpretation on Al-Andalus concealed a «patriotic» intent, namely that of glorifying the historical role of Spain (rather than Italy or France) in the development of the European literary canon. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12140 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Giuseppina D'Antuono Pages: 161 - 168 Abstract: Was Denis Diderot “the master of Danton”, as the historian Aulard asserted, or was he “the master of Brissot” as Jean Dautry stated' Or rather, was the philosophe the true inspiration of Babeuf' From a general point of view, research on the circulation and heritage of Diderotian political ideas in Europe has mostly been interpreted in relationships of analogy or in contrast with the event, ideas and men of the French Revolution. This article aims to analyze the debate on the most recent historical readings that have reawakened the hermeneutic dialectic on the relationship between the political thought and works of Denis Diderot and the spokesmen of the French Revolution. The significance of this study thus lies in its focus on the most recent historiographical readings on the uses of Diderotian stratified production, which over time have distorted his political vocabulary. At the present time, we have some data – from the cross-analysis between the study of unpublished sources and new research perspectives on political traineeships and clandestine circles – —on which to base future research: on the eve of the Revolution, Diderotian thought circulated in clandestine pamphlets and, in those same years, some men of the future Constituent took inspiration from the philosophe. Therefore, the category of “general will” in use among the men of the Constituent and the Legislative (Thouret, Brissot) seems not to be of Rousseauian derivation only. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-11696 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Valentina Altopiedi Pages: 169 - 177 Abstract: The figure of the femmes publiques leads to a rather interesting reconsideration of the history of female citizenship during the French Revolution. Prostitution was indeed involved in an ambiguous depenalization process. This essay aims to examine the legal ambiguity of the condition of the femmes publiques during the Revolution, when prostitution was decriminalised but still stigmatised. To highlight the female agency, this study will analyse the letters written to the government during the Thermidorian reaction and Marie-Madeleine Jodin’s Vues législatives pour les femmes, adressées à l’Assemblée nationale. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12727 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Maria Rosaria Nappi Pages: 179 - 192 Abstract: Valerio Villareale (Palermo, 1773-1854), the main neoclassic sculptor in Sicily, spent his young years between Naples and Rome. The paper highlights his training in Naples, where he met Filippo Tagliolini, and in Rome, where he knew Antonio Canova. Based on unpublished documents, the paper explores his participation in the Neapolitan Republic of 1799 and his activity during the reign of Gioacchino and Carolina Murat, when he sculpted the portraits of the King and the Queen as well as several stucco decorations and sculptures in the royal palaces in Caserta and Naples. At the restoration of the Borboni the Villareale returned to Palermo where he continued his career not only as a sculptor, but also as a teacher and art restorer. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-11812 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Lorenzo Benedetti Pages: 193 - 197 Abstract: Taking inspiration from a recent book by Marcello Verga, the present paper reaffirms the scientific status of genealogy and focuses on the importance of this autonomous subject, fundamental in carrying out correct research in many fields. The paper also underlines the crucial role played by all historical documentary sciences (once equivocally called ‘Auxiliary sciences of History’) and the reasons why their enhancement and development remains essential, especially in the academic world. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12274 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
Authors:Massimo Galtarossa Pages: 199 - 202 Abstract: The interview with one of the major specialists in Didactics of modern italian History concerns the subject of teaching the discipline, renewed since the late nineties of the XIX centurythanks to the emergence of new historiographical addresses, advancements in the legislative field and the contribution of pedagogical disciplines. The manual, a controversial but valuable literary genre, remains a useful teaching tool for a new teaching profession, which contemplates a more precise awareness of the historical method and its implications. The history laboratory appears to be the place where the use of sources, experimentations, interdisciplinarity and problematicity are highlighted; further, today the problem arises of breaking into the educational systems from everyday reality. Thus, even the Eighteenth-century cultural debate, such as the history of colonization or epidemics, can undoubtedly contribute to the formation of a citizen who is aware and oriented on the level of historical vision. PubDate: 2021-11-09 DOI: 10.36253/ds-12568 Issue No:Vol. 6 (2021)
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