Prophetic Times: Visions of Emancipation in the History of Italy

291 Pages·2023·1.666 MB·English

by  Maurizio Viroli

Prophetic Times
Throughout Italy’shistory, prophetic voices –poets, painters,philoso-
phers – have bolstered the struggle for social and political emancipa-
tion. These voices denounced the vices of compatriots and urged them
towardredemption.Theygavemeaningtosuffering,helpingtoprevent
moralsurrender;theyprovidedsupport,withpathosandanger,which
set intomotionthe moralimagination,culminatinginredemption and
freedom. While the fascist regime attempted to enlist Mazzini and the
prophets of the Risorgimento in support of its ideology, the most
perceptive anti-fascist intellectual and political leaders composed elo-
quent prophetic pages to sustain the resistance against the totalitarian
regime.Bytheendofthe1960s,noprophetofsocialemancipationhas
been able to move the consciences of the Italians. In this Italian story,
then,isourstory,theworld’sstory,inspirationforsocialandpolitical
emancipationeverywhere.
Maurizio Viroli isProfessor of Government at the University of Texas
atAustinandProfessorofPolitics(Emeritus)atPrincetonUniversity.
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Prophetic Times
Visions of Emancipation in the History of Italy
MAURIZIO VIROLI
TheUniversityofTexasatAustin
PrincetonUniversity(Emeritus)
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names:Viroli,Maurizio,author.
title:Prophetictimes:visionsofemancipationinthehistoryofItaly/MaurizioViroli,
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othertitles:Tempiprofetici.English
description:NewYork,NY,USA:CambridgeUniversityPress,2022.|Translationof:
Tempiprofetici.Bari:GLFeditoriLaterza,2021.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2022030547(print)|lccn2022030548(ebook)|isbn9781009233187
(hardback)|isbn9781009233200(paperback)|isbn9781009233170(epub)
subjects:lcsh:Politicsandculture–Italy–History.|Politicalsociology–Italy–History.|
Nationalsocialismandreligion–History.|Italy–History–Prophecies.|Italy–Religion.|
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To Pasquale Stoppelli and Jeffrey Tulis because “Tarde non furon mai
grazie divine”
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Contents
Acknowledgments page ix
1 Introduction 1
1.1 TheStory 5
1.2 The(Tentative)MoraloftheStory 17
2 From Dante to the Republicof Prophets 29
2.1 ProphetsandPoets 29
2.2 Savonarola’sRepublicanProphecy 41
2.2.1 TheMissionoftheProphet 42
2.2.2 TheNewJerusalem 50
2.2.3 ChristKingofFlorence 52
2.3 PropheticMachiavelli 60
2.3.1 OnProphetsandProphecies 60
2.3.2 Machiavelli’sPropheticWords 73
2.3.3 RealityandDreams:AnAntichristianProphet? 85
2.4 TheRepublicoftheProphets(1527–1530) 95
3 TheDeclineof Prophecy and Italy’s Bondage 104
3.1 TheDominationoverConsciences 109
3.2 ProphetsofSelf-Denial 113
3.3 Prophecy,ReasonofState,andUtopia 120
3.4 ReverberationsofBygonePropheticTimes 131
3.5 ProphetsAreImpostorsorFools 149
3.6 TheRevolutionofthePhilosophersandtheCounterrevolution
oftheProphets 156
4 TheProphetic Voicesof the Risorgimento and the
Anti-Fascist Resistance 167
4.1 TheTimesofProphets 168
vii
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viii Contents
4.2 PropheticPoetsandWriters 180
4.3 GiuseppeMazziniandHisPropheticLegacy 193
4.4 TheAutumnoftheRisorgimentoandtheBirth
oftheRepublic 211
5 Epilogue 239
Selected Bibliography ofPrimary Sources 249
Selected Bibliography ofSecondary Sources 259
Index 275
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Acknowledgments
I first thought about prophecy one afternoon many years ago in Milan, at the
home of Maria Teresa Fumagalli Beonio Brocchieri. Thanks to my dialogue
with Maria Teresa and her excellent students, the idea for a conference was
born. Held in November 2015 at the Università della Svizzera Italiana in
Lugano, that conference was this work’s starting point. I am very grateful to
allwhoparticipatedforencouragingmetoundertakethislongjourney.Thanks
to my friend Tommaso Greco, I discussed a paper on “Machiavelli the
prophet” at the University of Pisa in December of the same year. I then
presented the first fruits of my research to the Axel and Margaret Ax:son
Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit in Stockholm, which generously
financed my project. My institution, the University of Texas at Austin, has
been equally generous to me. I am particularly appreciative of the sabbatical
grantedto me while Iwas bringingthis project to completion.
During a conference organized by my colleague and friend Nicola Panichi,
I once again discussed prophetic language and political emancipation at the
UniversitàdiUrbinoCarloBoin2016.Iamgratefultoherforofferingmean
important opportunity to share my research hypotheses with friends and col-
leagues, among whom are Gianfranco Borrelli and Artemio Enzo Baldini.
Under the auspices of my former Princeton student, Yiftah Elazar, I had the
privilege ofdiscussing the same topic with colleagues andscripture scholarsat
theHebrewUniversityofJerusalemin2017.Inthesameyear,againinUrbino,
and again thanks to Nicola Panichi and the Magnificent Rector Vilberto
Stocchi, I presented the provisional results of my work and collected valuable,
encouragingcommentsfromCarloOssola,RaphaelEbgi,andSimonettaBassi.
Gaetano Lettieri organized a seminar on Machiavelli at which I was able to
illustratesomeideastocolleaguesfromtheSapienza–UniversitàdiRomaand
other Roman universities. I thank everyone for their comments and observa-
tions.ThankstoLorraineandThomasPangle,Ihadthepleasureofproposing
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