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, centering fundamentally on an idea of decline compared to a glorious mythical past. But how much truth was there in these accounts? And what image of Italy at the time was presented to Europe? The research focuses on Giuseppe Baretti and the Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy: a true apologia for eighteenth-century Italy. The aim is to reconsider the role played by Baretti as a defender of Italians, reconstructing both the idea of Italy itself and its cultural history in Europe, as well as Baretti’s activity and thought, as a controversial national critic but also a passionate teacher and popularizer of Italian literature and culture abroad.
Research Interests
Petrarch; Petrarchism, Exegesis and the history of Petrarchan criticism; Enlightenment; Contemporary poetry.