“Alas, poor Italy!” David Hume and the Italian Civilization in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
This article focuses on David Hume’s journey to the northern Italian peninsula in 1748, a journey barely explored in contemporary historiography. The Scottish philosopher was a field assistant to the British General St. Clair on a secret military mission to the courts of Vienna and Turin. After cros...
Zapisane w:
| Wydane w: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/politics, |
|---|---|
| 1. autor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Język: | Anglais |
| Wydane: |
Politics
2025
|
| Hasła przedmiotowe: | |
| Dostęp online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Streszczenie: | This article focuses on David Hume’s journey to the northern Italian peninsula in 1748, a journey barely explored in contemporary historiography. The Scottish philosopher was a field assistant to the British General St. Clair on a secret military mission to the courts of Vienna and Turin. After crossing Holland, Germany and Austria, he stayed in Trento, Mantua, Cremona, Milan and Turin and described in some letters to his brother, which formed a true travel diary, the social, economic and political realities of Italy, a country severely torn and harassed by exorbitant taxes, but rich in history and culture before national unification. For the first time in Hume’s intellectual production his scrupulous social and political analysis appears, as well as his careful observation of the character of the princes at the European courts, the identity of the nations and popular customs, the nature of the cities and landscapes, and his study of the causes of productivity and the misery of nations. Inspired by Hume’s observations of Italian civilization, which are of great historical and political value, the article reconstructs the historical, military and political-institutional context of the territories visited by a philosopher in military uniform. |
|---|