Storia moderna

in "Rivista Storica Italiana", 129 (2017), pp. 369-416.
Abstract - La duchessa di Mantova Margherita Paleologo Gonzaga è figura poco studiata della vita religiosa, oltreché politica e culturale, dell’Italia del Cinquecento. A partire dallo studio della sua corrispondenza inedita il presente articolo ripercorre i suoi legami con alcuni protagonisti del mondo dell’evangelismo italiano, in particolare con il cardinale genovese Federico Fregoso, il vescovo di Verona Gian Matteo Giberti e il predicatore cappuccino, poi esule religionis causa, Bernardino Ochino. L’esempio e il magistero di quegli uomini spinse la duchessa ad appassionarsi dei temi spirituali allora al centro del dibattito teologico, ad assumere posizioni non tradizionali, a finanziare
la pubblicazione di libretti dedicati al tema dell’orazione mentale, e a impegnarsi direttamente, accanto al cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, nella riforma della vita religiosa del ducato, con una particolare predilezione
per i monasteri femminili. Margherita fu così al centro di una vasta rete di relazioni con uomini e donne rimasti nella cornice della Chiesa romana, come il frate domenicano Reginaldo Nerli, ma anche con figure vicine agli ambienti del dissenso religioso – è il caso dello stampatore Gabriele Giolito – o addirittura rivelatesi eterodosse, quali oltre ad Ochino l’ebraista Francesco Stancaro.

The duchess of Mantua Margherita Paleologo Gonzaga is an understudied figure of the Italian sixteenth century’s religious, political and cultural life. Through the analysis of her unpublished correspondence, this contribution investigates Margherita’s relationship with some of the most influential representatives of the so-called Italian Evangelism, such as the Genoese cardinal Federico Fregoso, the bishop of Verona Gian Matteo Giberti and the Capuchin preacher Bernardino Ochino, who in 1542 fled from Italy religionis causa. The example and teaching of these men fostered Margherita’s interest in the main spiritual themes and debates of the time, and led her to unconventional positions. For example, along with her brother-in-law, cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, she got involved in the reform of religious life within the Duchy, especially focusing on female monasteries; moreover, she financed the publication of books dealing with the topic of mental prayer. As a result of her actions, Margherita found herself at the centre of a huge network of relationships, both with men and women who lingered within the Roman Church, such as the Dominican friar Reginaldo Nerli, and with persons who were linked to the circles of religious dissent – it is the case of the printer Gabriele Giolito – or would even prove heterodox, as the mentioned Ochino or the hebraist Francesco Stancaro.

As it asserted itself in the first half of the 19th century and beyond, republicanism is traditionally considered as a political culture stemming from the French Revolution, especially in the French historiographical tradition. Based on the principles of natural law and on the national sovereignty of the people, this republicanism is in theory distinguished from a republicanism of the Old Regime, based on civic virtue and the principle of the balance of powers, which is developed in the republican city-states since the Middle Ages, but which seems to be exhausted with the emergence of the commercial companies and the advent of the Freedom of the Moderns. The so-called Cambridge School recalled the distinction between these two republican traditions, but also brought to light the perpetuation and renewal of the old in the modern, as well as the complexity and overlap of a great variety of legacies. The development of a transnational perspective in the historiography of post-revolutionary political cultures, by drawing attention to the fact that these are nourished by incessant intellectual exchanges with foreign countries, leads in fact to take leave of the two great traditions that we just mentioned. This approach leads to nuance the originality of republicanism stemming from the French Revolution, and rather suggests that it participates in a movement of globalization of the ideas and political practices of the first 19th century, generically defined as liberal; it calls for widening the spectrum of fields of inquiry to Spanish-speaking and Italian-speaking countries. Such historiographical decompartmentalization makes it possible to reassess the contribution to evolution of modern political ideas of geographical areas traditionally considered as marginal, in particular Latin America and Southern Europe, while questioning the intellectual dependence to France, the United States and Great Britain of the political cultures which develop there. In this regard, recent international works and symposia invite us to reconsider the importance of these southern spaces for the transnational evolution of republicanism in contemporary times but also the extent of transatlantic circulation. The conference will be focused in particular on the communication circuits and reception of the republican political and visual culture, narratives and celebrities from the late 18th century until the second half of the 19th century. This time-frame, covering over an age of profound transformation in the communication system as well as in image technologies, allows to assess those discourses, objects for daily use and images in action in their peculiar contexts, and their role in narrating the republicanism and his protagonists for the men and