Thesis title: Processi di politicizzazione in età rivoluzionaria e napoleonica: la circolazione dei saperi e delle pratiche politiche nella Roma del ventennio francese
The research focuses on the politicization processes of society during the twenty years of French Revolution and Napoleonic domination pointed by the Roman observatory and their intertwining with the circulations of people, models, practices and political, economic, technical-productive and scientific knowledge. Is it possible – despite some undeniable peculiarities—to abstract certain elements from the Roman case study using an inductive logic process to generalize them to the broader Italian situation?
The perspective adopted in this thesis interprets in historical continuity the politicization processes during the twenty years of French influence and rule, though not limiting itself to this narrow time frame. The aim of the first chapter is to retrace the Italian historiography on the revolutionary and Napoleonic age from the postwar period to the present, demonstrating that the chosen approach is legitimized by the literature. Indeed, historiography has gradually moved in this direction, even if it has left room for better defining the strictly political objects of study in the Consular and Imperial phases: a task which can be accomplished through the analysis of a specific case study, as the one of Rome.
The second chapter explores the politicization processes in Rome that led to the crisis of the ancient ecclesiastical regime. These processes emerged from a vital reformist movement that historiography — long out of touch with the topic — has underestimated. This movement manifested itself in the dialogue between state and public opinion, which grew in quality and intensity proportionally to the assimilation of new economic and political ideas from the Italian and European intellectual context, thanks to the direct involvement of foreigners. After 1789, this reception was no longer limited to theory, but also involved new revolutionary practices such as conspiracy. The second part of the chapter follows the Roman patriots actions, outlining their contribution to the spread of new ideals and even to the fall of the papacy's temporal power.
Another key moment in the politicization of local actors was their experience in Republican and Napoleonic administrations and institutions. The third chapter analyzes the centralizing intentions of the new state formations and the deontologization of the roman administrative staff. It also examines several career trajectories that continued uninterruptedly through changing political regimes: this prosopography allows us to grasp the meaning of the political apprenticeship within the administration. Among the various figures, the focus falls in particular on Nicola Maria Nicolai, an emblematic figure of connection for interpreting the continuity elements in the various administrative periods between reformism, revolutions and restorations.
Focusing on political aspects of the Napoleonic years, the fourth chapter reconstructs the activity of the Roman Municipality and the conduct of the elections of 1811-1813, two experiments of the imperial system of representation. Finally, it focuses on the specialized associations which collaborated with the regime.