Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri and Riccardo Facchini,
eds. Medievalismi italiani (secoli XIX–XXI). Rome: Gangemi,
2018.
Reviewed by Jennifer Rushworth
(j.rushworth@ucl.ac.uk)
This is a glossy volume with a number of
black-and-white illustrations that brings together nine essays on a variety of
topics related to modern Italian medievalism. The focus here is on medievalism
in a socio-political sphere. Consequently, rather than essays either on
literary topics or on multi-media medievalism (ever popular subjects within the
field), the contributors turn their attention—and the reader’s—to what we might
term civic medievalism in the relatively recent past. Emblematic in this regard
is Davide Iacono’s essay on the construction of Mussolini as a noble and heroic
condottiero, with a corresponding investigation of the fascist
fascination of and investment in medievalist thinking (pp. 53–66). This volume
thus brings to light an often ugly side of medievalism: namely, the uses or
misuses of medievalism for dubious political ends.
Nonetheless, the juxtaposition of essays also
demonstrates overall the very different uses and very wide appeal of
medievalist tropes and imagery across the Italian political spectrum over time.
In this regard the proposed plural of the title—medievalismi—is very
apt. One of the editors proposes two guiding threads within this plurality to
aid the reader: cities and Catholicism (p. 20). These are not only the two
poles around which the collected essays gravitate, but they are also argued to
be more generally key distinctive sites of Italian medievalism. A further
suggested feature, unique to this tradition, is the position of the Middle Ages
in Italy as typically overshadowed by both the Classical era and the bright
lights of the Renaissance. This perspective perhaps helps to explain the
relative neglect of medievalism as a scholarly area of study in Italy,
especially compared to other countries such as the USA, the UK, or France.
Equally, however, Italian medievalism also often overlooks any strict divide
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with many purportedly medievalist
myths (for instance, the aforementioned ideal of the condottiero) drawing
on aspects of both periods.
Following these two threads, on the cities side
Francesco Pirani treats the development of maritime republics both as a concept
and as a progressively fixed four-part canon (namely, Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and
Venice), with an emphasis on shifting perceptions from the Risorgimento to
fascism and beyond (pp. 131–48). The irony that these republics are perceived
as such only once they have lost this distinct status does not go unremarked
(cf. p. 144). Meanwhile, Francesca Roversi Monaco studies anniversary
celebrations of the University of Bologna masterminded by Giosuè Carducci in
1888 and revived in 1988 (pp. 149–62). In this essay, particular attention is
paid to the specific context of each commemoration, the first being played out
against a backdrop of a newly unified Italy and the latter, instead, taking
place on a more European stage. The question of the ethnic identity of the
Longobards (so-called ‘barbari’ [barbarians]), discussed by Stella Losasso,
belongs also to this civic thread, relying as it does on archaeological
evidence of past settlements and their burial sites (pp. 75–92). Losasso’s
conclusion that the Middle Ages are characterized by ‘una cultura “creola”’ [a
‘creole’ culture] is welcome for its embracing of multiculturalism (p. 92),
especially since her essay begins with a reminder that ‘il racconto e la
percezione del passato dipendano dalla temperie culturale in cui sono prodotti’
[the narration and the perception of the past rely upon the cultural climate in
which they are produced] (p. 75).
The question of religion, in contrast, is most
important to the work of Riccardo Facchini and Sonia Merli respectively.
Facchini considers the medievalist tendencies of traditionalists in the wake of
the Second Vatican Council; for these, the Middle Ages represented an ideal age
of Catholic power and omnipresence (pp. 29–51). He also assesses the adoption
of the crusades as a lens through which to view contemporary conflicts, noting
that prior to the Islamophobia of the early twenty-first century, the model of
the crusades was used rather either as an anti-Communist weapon or more broadly
as an argument in favour of greater Catholic militancy. Merli instead
investigates the myths of templars and templarism up until quite recently, both
within the Catholic Church and in relation to tourism and popular medievalism
more broadly (pp. 93–114). She thus connects religious ritual to specific urban
sites, including the marketing of Caggiano, for instance, as a templar town,
‘“città dei templari”’ (pp. 108–9). It is, however, Geraldine Leardi’s short
contribution on the Hagia Sophia that weaves the two guiding threads most
closely together, in an essay that adds orientalism to the medievalist mix by
considering the representation of this building in the work of specific late
nineteenth-century Italian visitors (in particular, the writer Edmondo De
Amicis and the painter Cesare Biseo: pp. 67–74).
Chapters two to nine (that is, from Facchini to
Roversi Monaco; in fact the chapters are unnumbered, and incidentally do seem
to be rather oddly ordered alphabetically by name of contributor) offer
meticulously researched case studies of different moments of medieval
inspiration in modern Italian history. Collectively, they act as a persuasive
reminder of the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of the study of medievalism,
drawing on a diverse range of subjects: history, politics, religion,
archaeology, and architecture (this list is not exhaustive, but represents the
principal areas to be found in this volume). The volume is additionally notable
for the space it devotes not only to the work of female academics, but also for
its attentiveness to women’s history, thanks in particular to Maria Chiara
Pepa’s study of the adoption of the medieval guerriera Marzia Ubaldini
as a role model for and by female Risorgimento activists (pp. 115–130). Beyond
their status as illustrative examples of broader patterns of medievalism, these
chapters will individually be useful to historians of various movements and
myths, and each doubtless represents the tip of the iceberg of larger research
topics for each contributor. From this perspective, the volume acts as a
tantalizing taster of current foci within the burgeoning field of Italian
medievalism, although it is inevitably not comprehensive.
More general in appeal and international in scope is
the opening essay (chapter one in my numbering) by Tommaso di Carpegna
Falconieri on ‘Medievalismi: il posto dell’Italia’ [Medievalisms: The Place of
Italy] (pp. 9–28). In this essay, Carpegna Falconieri is explicitly in dialogue
with recent Anglo-American scholarship within the field of medievalism,
especially works by Richard Utz and David Matthews. Within this context, some
of his claims—for instance, the argument that medievalism and medieval studies
must be understood to be porous, interconnected, and dehierarchized—are,
accordingly, not necessarily surprising to an Anglophone readership, although
they are very passionately and elegantly put. More provocative and unsettling
is Carpegna Falconieri’s fair criticism of the field of medievalism as too
often monolingually Anglophone, with a concomitant neglect of Italian sources
and studies, especially those written in Italian and not available in
translation (see p. 15 for an excoriating critique of the current ‘imperialismo
culturale anglosassone’ [Anglosaxon cultural imperialism] within academia).
This neglect is, of course, not helped by the status of Italian medievalism
within Italy as a not yet well-recognized or well-defined field of study.
Nonetheless, this same neglect may in itself be an
opportunity, presenting untilled land with rich fruits still be harvested. The
conditions are not themselves promising; Carpegna Falconieri rehearses familiar
though crucial arguments about the underfunding of universities, the decline of
the humanities, and a disconnect between academia and the general public, all
problems that may be acute in but are certainly not unique to Italy.
Notwithstanding, he does identify some already established sites of medievalism
within the Italian academic landscape (in particular, Bari, Turin, and
Bologna), and the location of the contributors themselves suggest a few more
(especially Urbino). The overall sense is, then, that this volume promises a
rich future for the study of medievalism in Italy, whilst also reminding us of
the need to encourage greater internationalism in this sphere.
Jennifer Rushworth
University College London
