Popular politics in early modern Italy

Course code: HICL098P

Tutor: Filippo de Vivo

The aim of the course is to set political history in a new light. Traditionally, the object of political history was the factional conflict of elites or the diplomatic struggle of states. Here we will take the focus down to the level of “ordinary” people, to draw a history of “popular” politics. Most people in early modern Italy were excluded from government, but what were their opinions about the ways in which they were governed? How effectively could they express those views? Moreover, what were the political mechanisms that regulated the life of communities, and how did those mechanisms work at momentary times of strife? The classes will focus on questions of citizenship and obedience, participation and exclusion, dissent and revolt, partisanship as well as apathy. We will consider both famous events such as the revolt of Masaniello (Naples, 1648), and broader issues of political culture. Though early modern Italy is at the heart of the course, comparisons and contrasts will also be suggested.

Preliminary Reading

ASTARITA, T., Village Justice: Community, Family, and Popular Culture in Early Modern Italy (1999).

BURKE, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1978, repr. 1994).

The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy (1987).

CAMPORESI, P., The Fear of Hell: Images of Damnation adn Salvation in Early Modern Europe (1991).

COHEN, T. and E., eds. Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before the Papal Magistrates (1993)

DAVIS, R. C., The War of the Fists. Popular Culture and Public Violence in Late Renaissance Venice (1994).

DEAN, T., and LOWE, K. J. P., eds. Crime, Society and the Law in Renaissance Italy (1994).

ECKSTEIN, N. The district of the Green Dragon: Neighbourhood Life and Social Change in Renaissance Florence (1995)

MARTINES, L., ed. Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities, 1200-1500 (1972)

MUIR, E. Mad Blood Stirring. Vendetta and Factions in Friuli during the Renaissance (1993).

MUIR, E. and RUGGIERO, G., eds. eds. Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe (1991).

NICCOLI, O. Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy (1990).

TE BRAKE, W., Shaping History. Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500-1700 (1998).

VILLARI, R. The Revolt of Naples (1993)