RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

European culture and the problem of otherness: historiography, politics, science of man in modern Europe (XVI-XIX centuries)

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di FIRENZE - STUDI STORICI E GEOGRAFICI - ()

Research Unit Leader

Rolando Minuti

Description

Within the national research program "European culture and the problem of Alterity; historiography, politics and human sciences in modern age (XVIth-XIXth centuries)", the research subject of the University of Florence local unit will be the relationship between the European reflection on diversity and the evolution of the theme of tolerance from XVIth to XVIIIth century. In this context the idea of "diversity" will be considered drawing specific attention to some aspects of its various meanings: the impact of different cultures, civic traditions, religious identities, political ideas inside European reality, the confrontation with "other" cultures and civilizations outside historical and geographical European boundaries (with a particular reference to the Asiatic world), the developments and various implications of the idea of human "diversity" in a scientific and medical context. On the other side, the idea of "tolerance" will be considered in its various and not always uniform meanings, and in its extension to a major European debate which is not limited to theological-religious discussions, but involves the more general process of evolution, in modern age, of the ideas on civil society, on civil and political rights of individuals and communities, on the very notions of civilization and progress. In this sense, and considering the various answers which were given to these complex questions between XVIth and XVIIIth – that is, in a really crucial period for the history of European identity and culture, from the age of humanism to the age of American and French revolutions – the analysis of the connection between diversity and tolerance, which aims at linking two subjects for which a recent trend of international research bears evidence of a particular interest (see 2.4.a) even if a multidisciplinary approach is still not very frequent, offers the opportunity of giving an original contribution for a deeper
understanding of one of the more delicate theme for the history of the making of modern European consciousness, whose relevance, mainly in a phase of fast evolution of contemporary world, is quite evident.
The research program of Florence local unit is connected to studies which its members have cultivated in previous years – particulary as a resulut of the research project Prin 2004, of which the present project must be conceived as a natural prosecution - leading to important publications (see Cipriani 2005, Felici 2005, Mazzei 2006, Minuti 2006); moreover, as an outstanding reason of cohesiveness, they are all involved in editorial programs of international relevance as the collection "Studi e testi per la storia della tolleranza in Europa nei secoli XVI-XVIII" (Firenze, Olschki) and the collection “Identità e alterità nell’Europa moderna. Ricerche e documenti di storia della cultura” (Napoli, Bibliopolis). For the attainment of the purposes of the proposed research program, the Florence local unit will develop its activities according to the following research plan.
The problem of the achievement of an idea of tolerance and of an universalistic conception of culture and religion in XVIth century Europe - as fundamental premises for the development, in XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, of ideas of religious, political al civil liberty - will be the particular subject of the research of L. Felici; she will develop a study of some scholars (Giovanni Leonardi Sertori, Justus Velsius) who express in a particularly significant way, in the age of Reformation and CounterReformation, the tensions which carry on a broader consciousness of human rights, or (the case of Hugo Blozio, the research subject of P. Molino as well) gave rise to a universalistic representation on culture and civilisation which was translated in important project of cultural organization.
The confrontation of minds, cultural attitudes and religious ideas in XVIth and XVIIth centuries Europe will be the research subject of R. Mazzei; it will be studied from an original point of view, that is the experience of Italian merchants settled in Nürnberg (the Torrigiani family) and Cracow (the Soderini family) from the middle of the XIVth century to the beginning of the Thirty Years war. Following the dense interlacing of personal relationships of these eminent merchant families, and observing an human experience for which the particular merchant mind produces a peculiar perception for attitudes, orientations, cultural trends in the various countries visited, the case of Italian merchants in Eastern Europe makes it possible to analyse the significance of a cultural intermediation which involved aspects of higher culture too, and to observe the expression of an idea of tolerance deeply connected to the reasons of commerce and to the international mobility of the business world.
This research line has already reached significant results with the publication of the volume La trama nascosta. Storie di mercanti e altro (secoli XVI - XVII), (Viterbo, 2006, in print), and it will be further developed, following new inquiries at the Biblioteka Jagiellonska of Crakow, during the next years. Another research line will be the study of cultural exchanges between France and Poland and particularly an analysis of the editorial history if the Description du Royaume de Pologne (1573) by Blaise de Vigenère.
The confrontation with ‘other’ civilisations in European culture between XVII and XVIII century, with a particular reference to the work of Montesquieu, will be the specific research subject of R. Minuti. The publication of the volume Orientalismo e idee di tolleranza nella cultura francese del primo ‘700 (Firenze 2006, in print), is an important starting point – also involving the work of Montesquieu – of further studies, which will be devoted to a careful inquiry on the travel literature source ot the Esprit des Lois. This work is connected to the project of critical edition of the Works of Montesquieu (Oxford, Voltaire Foundation), for which R. Minuti is responsible as member of the scientific committee and director of the publication of the volume of Notes et extraits de lectures.
The study of human "diversity" from a scientific point of view, and its implications on the specific side of medical discipline, will be the research subject of G. Cipriani, and his studies will be devoted to the analysis of a scientific literature which, during the XVIIIth century, spread at all levels of society a new sensibility towards physical pathologies. The dramatic equivalence sin-illness was in fact overcome, and a large amount of publications was produced to clearly describe the most common diseases, with various advises on the appropriate therapies, on the theoretical foundation that sickness should have been considered only in its physical significance. In this context, so, false beliefs and superstitions which normally situated the causes of disease outside physical body, offering many opportunities for the activities of charlatans, met with a strong opposition. Meaningful works testify this important evolution of ideas on physical diversity derived from pathology (L.Bordelon, A. Tissot, W.Buchan, L.Pignotti, G.B.Morgagni), where the marks of a rationalistic and enlightened culture in medical disciplines are clear, and give the possibility to see, through a new consideration of disease, a different and broader reflection on human rights. The various phases of the research program will be carried out following a regular confrontation on work progresses and results, with seminars and meetings organised in cooperation with the other local units involved in the national program on specific subjects
of common interest. Results of the research activities will be published, as volumes or essays on qualified national and international reviews, and a regular communication on the activities of the Florence unit will be available on the web, in cooperation with "St.Moderna - Portal of modern history studies" (http://www.stmoderna.it) and the electronic review "Cromohs", directed by the responsible of the Florence local unit. "Eliohs" digital library (http://www.eliohs.unifi.it), directed by the people responsible of the units of Florence and Trieste, will offer an appropriate communication area in the internet for the publication of texts and documents relevant for the research subjects of the Florence unit and the other units of the national program.