Marco Incognito
A European Account for Italy: Baretti and the Defense of Italians
In the Age of Enlightenment, with the spread of the Grand Tour phenomenon and the related travel literature, the European experience of Italy became richer and more complex, focusing on an idea fundamentally revolving around a concept of decline compared to a glorious mythical past. But how much truth was there in these accounts? And what image of Italy at that time was presented to Europe? The research focuses on Giuseppe Baretti and the Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy: a true apology for eighteenth-century Italy. The aim is to reconsider the role played by Baretti as a defender of the Italians, reconstructing both the idea of Italy itself and of its cultural history in Europe, as well as the activity and thought of Baretti, a polemical national critic, but also a passionate teacher and promoter of Italian literature and culture abroad.
Interessi di ricerca
Petrarch; Petrarchism, Exegesis and history of Petrarchan criticism; Enlightenment; Contemporary poetry.