VINCENZO CUOCO

by

LUCIO MARAMPON

B.A., University of British Columbia, 1964

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department

of

Romance Studies

We accept this thesis as conforming to the

required standard

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

August,1966 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree

that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and

study, I fur-cher agree that permission for extensive copying of this

thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my

Department or by his representatives. Tt is understood that copying

or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department of Spanish and Italian Studies

The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada

Dat.e August 18, 1966. Ii

Abstract

Vincenzo Cuoco was one of the first political realists of Italy. Living at Naples at the arrival of the French Army, he became accidently involved with the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799• Although he was a declared Xenophobe- . and a misogallic he was also an ardent patriot trying to respect the existing polit• ical order. Informed of the advance of the reaction• ary army toward Naples he had the occasion to foil a coup to overthrow the government of the young Repub• lic, for which the fugitive Bourbon King placed him on the list of revolutionaries to be arrested.

With the fall of the Republic in June 1799, he was arrested and sentenced to exile, the first period of which he spent at Marselles. With the victory of

Marengo in 1800, he followed the Italian exiles to

Milan. There, after a brief period of hardship, he published his Sagglo on the Revolution of Naples and with it gained fame and the recognition of the Rep• ublican government. His fame as a political writer did not derive from his artistic ability, but from his shrewd analysis of people and governments. His mind had been formed at Naples under the influence iii

of the French Enlightenment, but as an admirer of

Machievelli and a student of Vico, he retained a

detached aversion for transalpine rationalism. So

strong was his sense of talianism that while the

Parthenopean was still in power he dared to critic• ize its democratic government as too French and,

therefore, detached from Italian needs. This crit• icism is found in six letters (Frammenti) which he wrote to his friend V. Russo and included in an appendix to his major essay.

In the Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napo- letana del '99 he reviwed "from memory" the circum•

stances surrounding the Revolution. He gave an objec•

tive account oC the socio-economic conditions of the

Neapolitan Kingdom, the political obtuseness of the

Monarchy and the events of the Revolutionise analyzed in great detail the failure of the Republican govern• ment which he attributed mainly to its alienation

from the people. This want of popular spirit for whifoh

he called the Revolution "passive" had doomed the

Republic from its inception. The work contained,also, pertinent remarks on legislation,economics,and custom's. iv

At Milan (1800-1806) he edited the official newspaper, the Giornale Itallano. composed a brief work on statistics and wrote an epistolary novel,

Platone in Italia. (1804-6). In this last work he describes an imaginary voyage of Plato through

Southern Italy, presenting Vico's Etruscan thesis of an Italic culture preceding that of the Greeks.

His aim, which became almost an obsession, was to instill in his countrymen a renewed pride in the

Italian past.

In 1806, with the return of the French to Naples he ended his exile and was appointed by the new government to several important posts. His duties were many and varied, ranging from the drafting of economic reforms to framing a new system of education, from the presidency of Mollse to the directorship of the Royal Treasury.

The fall of Napoleon in 1815 ended his active life. A mental disorder,already foreshadowed earlier, developed into lunacy. He lived on in a state of ap• athy,and died on December fourteenth 1823,without 1 knowing how much he had contributed to the rising tide of national feeling throughout Italy. V

Table of contents

Chapter I Introduction.The hopes of a patriot 2

Chapter II The life of Vincenzo Cuoco 7

Chapter III The background of his political realism 19

Chapter IV Constitutional criticism in the " Prammenti " 27

Chapter V Cuoco's basis of Italianism—

the Saggio 40

Chapter VI Patriotic ideas in the Platone. 58

Chapter VII The programme for the Giornale

Itallano 72

Chapter VLTI The Report on Education 86

Chapter IX Thoughts on economics 93

Chapter X Conclusion 103

Notes 105

Bibliography 113 vi

Cronologlcal table.

October 1st 1770 Vincenzo Cuoco is born at Civi-

tacampomarrano, in Molise.

Late Slimmer 1784 Cuoco suffers an attack of men•

tal exaustion.

Late 1787 Cuoco goes to Naples to study.

Earlyl?88 Cuoco becomes secretary of

Galanti.

July 14 1789 Fall of the Bastille in Paris.

November 1790 Edmond Burke's Reflections on

the Revolution.is published.

earlyl790 Sir John Acton is Court Advisor,

179^ Discovery of the Jacobin con-

piracy at Naples.

March 2 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte assumes the

command of the Army in Italy.

April 9 1796 Napoleon begins the Italian

campaign.

October 17 1797 French victory and Treaty of

Campoformio.

March 1798 Napoleon's army sails for Egypt. vii

August 1798 Admiral Nelson defeats the French Navy at Trafalgar.

January 13 1799 Entry of the French army in Naples and declaration of the Republic.

February 8 1799 Cardinal Ruffo lands in Calabria at the head of the Sanfedisti.

March 1799 Cuoco becomes secretary to Falconieri.

April 1799 Cuoco returns to Naples;the Baccher conspiracy.

June 13 1799- Cardinal Ruffo enters Naples and accepts the surrender of the patriots. The end of the Republic and the arrest of Cuoco.

October 9 1799 Napoleon returns to France. April 1st 1800 Cuoco stands trial. April 23 1800 Cuoco is sentenced to exile. April 1800 Napoleon begins the Und Italian Campaign. May 5 1800 Cuoco lands at Marsailles. June 14 1800 Napoleon defeats the Austrians at Marengo.

Fall of 1800 Cuoco suffers a second collapse.

-December 11 1800 Cuoco is already at Milan. viii

Early 1801 Cuoco is employed at the Redattore.

March 1801 France and Ferdinand IV.signs the

peace of Florence.

Spring 1801 The first Volume of the Saggio is

published, the two following volumes

are, published the same year.

December 4 1802 Nappleon Becomes Emperor.

January 3 1804 Tne Olornale Itallano is published.

Early 1804 Cuoco publishes Platone in Italia.

September 6 1804 Cuoco befriends the young A.Manzoni.

May 26 1805 Napoleon is crowned at Milan.

February 16 1806 The French retake Naples and Ferdi• nand IV. flees again to Palermo.

May-June 1806 Cuoco publishes the II volume of the Platone.

Late August 1806 Cuoco returns to Naples.

November 19 1806 Cuoco is appointed to the Royal Council.

Late 1806

(or early 1807) Cuoco receives his "Law Degree".

December 1806 Cuoco is appointed to the Regia Societa d»Incoraggiamento.

November 11 1806 Cuoco is appointed to the Commissio- ne Feudale.

March rOf808 Cuoco is elected president of the "Accademia Napaletana". Ix

May 18 1808 Cuoco is honoured by Murat with the title of "Cavaliere dell'Ordine delle due Sicille".

July 12 1808 Cuoco goes to Portugal to congratu• late Joseph Bonapart for his Spanish throne.

September 5 1808 Cuoco is received in private audience by Napoleon*in Paris.

November 11 1808 Cuoco is appointed judge at the"Corte di Cassazione".

March 12 18100 Cuoco is appointed to the"Council of S£ate",in charge of Legislation.

June 28 1810 Cuoco is elected president of the "Istituto d'incoraggiamento del Mezzogiorno".

September 1810 Cuoco is appointed President of the Council of Molise.

February 28 1812 Cuoco is appointed "Direttore del Tesoasoc Reals. Spring 1812 Cuoco presents to the "Istituto d'incoraggiamento" his briefs on economic reforms.

March 25 1815 Cuoco receives from Murat the title of Baron of the Kingdom. April 6 1815 Napoleon abdicates.

May 20 1815 Convention of Casalanza(Capua) May 21 1815 Return of the Bourbons to Naples. September 1815 Cuoco suffers his final mental collapse.

December 14 1823 Cuoco dies of gangrene and is buried at Naples. Aknowledgment

I must thank Dr.D.Klang for introducing me to the works of Vincenzo Cuoco. For the preparation of this thesis I am most indebted to Dr. Rachel

Giese whose untiring assistance has been indispen• sable. Without her guidance my appreciation for this writer would have been superficial indeed. " Non vi e che un solo mezzo per divenir ragionevole... cessare di essere contempora- nei; obliare per un istante 1» awenimento di cui siamo parte ... per rammentar cio che lo ha preceduto e preve- der cid che ne deve seguire. " V.Cuoco.Soritti Varl.I.p.103.

" Ne la natura, ne l'educazione mi avean destinato ad essere uo&o di lettere."(l) So Vincenzo Cuoco wrote to Count Giovanni Battlsta Giovio, who had highly prai• sed his Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napoletana del'99 . Bather, it was, as Cuoco confided to another correspondent," un awenimento che non si potea ne pre- vedere n£ evitare..." that had made him become a wri• ter. (2) In yet another letter, to the Piedmontese

Robert!, he presented his Saggio as the work of a man who, far from being a writer, was merely a patriot who would gladly have died for liberty but was now constrai• ned by exile to search within his memory for those facts which might give him and his country the hope of a better order. " Vi prego a non ricercar altro in essa

£opera~] che l'amore della liberta [della] verltsi, e della patria, ed allora forse l'autore piu che di - % -

disprezzo, vi sembrera degno di pi eta.11 (3) He went

on to say that the two regions of Italy most worthy

of liberty and most capable, by the energy of their people,of sustaining and promoting it, were Piedmont and Lombardy, if only they were united, but Lombardy had been lost to the foreigner and Piedmont had al• most ceased to be Italian. The natural bond of geo• graphy, climate, language, customs and common names had been sundered by unnatural political developments. n Per molti secoli le generazioni si succedono tran- quillamente come i giorni dell,anno: esse non hanno che i nomi diversi, e chi ne conosce una le conosce tutte. Un awenimento straordinarlo sembra dar loro una nuova vita; nuovi oggetti si presentano al nos- tri occhi; ed in mezzo a quel disordine generale,che sembra voler distruggere una nazione, si scoprono il suo carattere, i suoi costumi e le leggi di quell*or- dine, del quale prima si vedevano solamente gli effetti." (4)

The order in which Cuoco placed his hopes and for which he began to write was a national one, political and truly Italian. Paul Hazard calls this " la philo- - 4 -

sophie de l'ltallanisine?^) Cuoco's philosophy had not issued from a life of leisure but from exile and per•

sonal misfortune, factors which had deflected the course he had plotted for his life. Only this,he thinks, could have pushed a man such as he into becoming an au• thor. Deprived of family and of country, he made the

Italian cause his own. As he wrote to Nicola Quaglia- relli, an imtimate friend who was still in Naples:

" Quel filosofo, il quale diceva che il circolo e la scrittura lo avevano reso dotto non era mai esiliato dalla sua patria. Io veggo che 1 *emigrazione e il mez• zo piu facile per divenire filosofo."(6) Sinee Cuoco believed that philosophy is the art of"speaking of those things of which one is not a part" he saw it as his duty to examine his memory and record the facts surrounding"his exile. He says: "... involto in un vor- tice, che guidava i volenti, e i non volenti strasci- nava, privo di amici, di patria e di altre occupazio- ni, ho creduto utile trarre da quelle poche cognizio- ni, che un'educazione liberale mi avea date ... i fat- ti che dassero a me ed alia mia patria speranza di un ordine migliore."(7)

He regrets the events that have led to his expat- - 5 -

riation and to his debut as a writer. For, as he says ironically, if the king of Naples had not declared war against the French, if the French had not defeated the

King only to abandon the territory they had come to liberate, and "... se io non fossi caduto nell'errore di credere che ogni buon cittadino debba amare la pa• tria qualunque sla la forma di governo che abbia..."(8) he could still have enjoyed all the good things of life, the congenial society and the personal comforts which he had sacrificed to his political principles.

The Neapolitan Revolution of 1799*which Cuoco called a " whirlpool",had made him an exile and had shaken his hopes of public liberty and prosperity. He used his pen, then, to draw from the past the courage to meet the difficulties faced by every exile and with the Saggio he contributed to the realization of a hap• pier future for himself and for his country. Of the book he says: " Quando io cominciai ad occuparmi del- la storia della rivoluzione di Napoli, non ebbi altro scopo che quello di raddolclre l!ozio e la noia dell1 emigrazione ...ne avrei pensato ad altro, se tu e gli amici,... non. aveste creduto che esso [*Saggio~| potes- - 6 -

se esser utile a qualche altro oggetto." (9)

His analysis of the revolutionary upheaval gave him a better understanding of the causes of political conflicts because he measured for the first time the magnitude of the prevailing social problems. Studied in retrospect, these problems led him to formulate a new political theory which would serve the Italy of the nineteenth century. II

" II Coco puo... essere con• siderate uno dei migliori tes- timoni del suo tempo e rappre- sentarci, spiegandolo, un ri- volgimento degli spirit!.... come il Machiavelli segna il punto nel quale i fervori uma- nistici si incarnano nella re• al ta. della vita politica, e, ...ci rivela rinnovata e con- sapevole di se stessa la co- scienza italiana.w G.Ottone.V.Coco.p.4.

In the isolated and mountaneous Sannio.in Molise, north-east of Naples,Vineenzo was born to Michelangelo

Cuoco and Colomba de Marinis, on the first of October

1770. His father, of an old seignorial family, was a lawyer and a student of economics,and from him Vincen- zo early acquired an interest in this science. He was guided in his studies, first in the classics by the uncle who had baptized him, and then in letters and philosophy by a cultivated nobleman,Lemaitre de Lupa- ra. In 1787 his father sent him to Naples to study law, but once immersed in the life of the capital,which at that time was teeming with the revolutionary ideas of the French Enlightenment, he found himself quite out of sympathy with the stultified legal profession as then practised in Naples under the influence of the - 8 -

Roman Curia. To his father's regret,he accepted a po• sition as secretary to Giuseppe Maria Galanti(17^3-

1806), who had already published his notable Descrizio-

2£ geografica.delle due Sloilie (1787-9*0, and also the treatise on statistics in Italy, Statlstlca del Regno di NapoM(1799). The esteem In which Cuoco held him can be seen in his Necrologia. a commemorative essay written on Galanti's death, in which he says:" Un uomo di genio, superiore sempre al suo secolo, prevede cio che si deve fare, e lo precetta.'(10)

During his years with Galanti, Cuoco became acquain• ted with the most brilliant men of the capital. He be• came a close friend of the political idealist, Vincen- zio Russo; and he came to know well Francesco Mario Pagano,the gifted author of the Costituzione Napoletana. who, like himself, was a student of Vico. Melchiorre Delfico, already famous for his liberal ideas, was al• so a frequent visitor at Galanti's house.(11) These men and others like them, with their discussions of poli• tics, economics and social reforms, did much to shape the mind of the young secretary. - 9 -

Although he had not taken his bar examination,

Cuoco developed a successful legal practice, special• izing in the numerous disputes arising from the feudal system still in force in the Kingdom and acquiring a certain fame as an advocate of peasants1 rights. His legal career was interrupted by the arrival of the

French army at Naples and by the institution of the

Parthenopean Hepublic in January 1799. He was only su• perficially involved with revolutionary movement. He had applied for a post as an officer in the republican police but had been refused. He was,however, appointed secretary to Ignazio Falconieri,a priest and schooltea• cher who at the beginning of the revolution had"thrown away the cassock to don the uniform of the Republican

National Guard", and had become chief republican orga• nizer for the region of the Volturno.(12) With him

Cuoco travelled widely, observing the people and their reactions to the new order. The indifference of the people to a system unsuited to their needs he noted in his letters to Russo, letters in which he sharply cri• ticised the Republican Government for its lack of real• ism and of political judgement. These same observations later enabled him to evaluate the true iecio-economic - 10 -

conditions of the rural population.

When he returned to Naples, in April of the same year, through Luisa Sanf elice, the wife of a friend, he became indirectly involved in the discovery and arrest of the brothers Baccher for their attempt to overthrow the Republic.(13) His part in the affair soon became known to the King1;(then in Sicily) who placed him on the list of patriots to be executed for treason.

Shortly after the fall of the Republic (June 13th,1799) he was arrested and for nine months awaited trial, but when his sentenced was finally pronounced (April 23,

1800) it was relatively mild. He was condemned to the confiscation of his personal property and to exile from the Kingdom for twenty years,a term he began in Marsei• lles onthe fifth of May,1800. While he was still on the boat from Naples he began to write his Sagglo. In it he begins: " Io imprendo a scriver la storia di una rivoluzione, che dovea formare la f elicita* di una na- zione, e che intanto, ha prodotta la sua rovina....La posterita che ci deve giudicare scrivera la nostra sto• ria. Ma, siccome a noi spetta di prepararle il materia- le del fatti, cos! sla permesso di prevenire II giudi- - 11 if

zio.... La posterita essente da passion!, non e sem- pre libera da pregiudlzii in favor di colui che rima- ne ultimo vineitore; e le nostre azioni potrebbero es• sere calunniate sol perche son state lnfelici.w (14)

Very little is known of his brief sojourn in

Prance, Savoy and Piedmont except what he writes to his brother: w Saprai come io sono partito per Francla.

Io non avea un abito, non avea un soldo. II primo gior- no in cui m'imbarcai, non avea che mangiare. Un ascen- dente di fortuna, che io ho provato dai momento dell* arresto fin oggi, mi fece trovar denari e mangiare.

Io giungo a Marsiglia:...Mi metto in balia della sorte: nessuno ,e stato piu favorito di me. Senza aver mai un soldo, ho viaggiato la Francia come un galantuomo, senza mai awilirmi, senza mai commettere alcuna diso- nesta."(15) The victory of Marengo, in June 1800, allowed him to settle in Milan, the capital of the

Cisalpine Republic. Here he had initial difficulty in finding employment since the city was crowded with po• litical exiles from all parts of Italy. With the assist' ance of a friend of Count Giovio, he published his

Saggio early in 1801 and with it secured Immediate - 12 -

recognition.(16) In his Introduction to the edition he writes: w Questo mio libro non deve esser conside• rs to come una storia, ma bensi come una raccolta di osservazioni sulla storia.... Gil avvenimenti poste• riori han dimostrato che io ho osservato con imparzia-

11ta e non senza qualche acume,tt(17) Now recognized as a shrewd political observer, he readily found government employment.

His first assignment was for Count Lizzoli, the

High Commissioner of the new government, for whom he compiled the Osservazioni .guJL DLvaX^Xmnto &eJJLf Ajg&g&a

( a socio-economic study for the a&siniatFettiem ©f that area), and this was soon followed by a-.study of the new science of statistics and its applications in the government, commissioned by Melzi d,Eril, the vice Pre• sident of the renamed Italian Republic. (18) His recog• nition by the government as an informed writer, quickly made him an editorial contributor to the Redattore Cis- alnino. the official weekly journal of the Republic.

In August 1803, at the request of Melzi; who realized his value as an interpreter of government policies to the people, he drafted a programme for the Giornale - 13 -

Italiano. the official publication replacing the

Redattore. Appointed editor-in«chief in January, 1804, he continued its publication until he left Milan for

Naples in 1806.

After the Peace of Florence, he had the opportu• nity, like most of the other exiles, to return to Naples with a Royal pardon. However, he felt that the politi-

i cal atmosphere in the Kingdom under the Bourbons, who proffered pardons for uncommlted crimes, could not be truly free. In a letter to his brother, Michele, he explains his decision to stay at Milan. M A che ritor- nerei io nella patria? Se io fussi reo, accetterei un perdono. Ma un uomo che non ha avuto la vilta di far un delitto; un uomo che ha potuto esser condannato solo perche si trovo strascinato in un vortice che egli odia- va, ma a cui era impossibile resistere; un uomo in cui l'amor della patria, della pace, della virtu non sono parole; un tale uomo non deve certamente esser contento di un perdono che gli lascia sempre l*apparenza di reo." (19)

During his active Milanese period, Cuoco produced - 14 -

his second major work, Platone in Italia, supposedly- transcribed from an ancient manuscript narrating the voyage in Italy of Plato with a young friend,Cleobulus, and recording their observations of the people and their customs. Though it is fictional history, in the style of the Abbe Barthelemy's Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en

Grece. the work reflects Cuoco1s primary concern with educating his contemporaries to realize the importance of their own history and traditions. This concern had already been shown in the preogramme for the Glornale

Italiano in which he proposed to impart to the people a national awareness and to stimulate their involvement in the making of history. This interest he extended in an official capacity when he resumed his career at

Naples.

He returned to Naples after the French occupation with warm recommandations from the Milanese officials to the new King o£ Naples, Joseph Bonaparte. The King appointed him to the Royal Council and to the Regla

Socleta d1Incoraggiamento del Mezzogiomo. but official employment did not prevent him from pursuing his main interest— the political education of the people. - 15 -

This concern for popular education was shared by

Joachin Murat, who succeeded Joseph in 1807, and who

appointed Cuoco to preside over a commission to draft

a programme for elementary education throughout the

Kingdom, including the rural areas.(20) This Cuoco

gladly undertook since he was convinced that only by „

educating the people at large could the Kingdom of l\

Naples and the rest of Italy gain the political stabi•

lity and economic prosperity needed to restore a sense of national identity. M Senza l'istruzione, le miglio- ri leggi restano inutlli;... la sola istruzione puo

imprimerle nel cuore de» cittadini....La sola istru•

zione puo renderci l'antica grandezza e l'antica glo• ria." (21) However his Progetto. as his programme was called, did not encounter the approval of the minister of Internal Affairs, Giuseppe Zurlo, who displayed open antagonism for such an expensive programme.

Since Zurlo had the support of other members of the

Hoyal Council, who did not dare to oppose their super• ior, the Progetto was shelved for over two years.

Finally, by order of the King, the Minister introduced a programme of his own, which after two more years of

debate in Council, was signed by the King in December - 16 -

1811. This official programme,when comparatively- analyzed, is found to contain most of the proposals

introduced earlier by Cuoco.(22)

In his term of public service (1806-1815), Cuoco

concerned himself with many reforms, not limiting him•

self to his own departmental jurisdiction. His interests

were as varied as they were objective, and his useful• ness as a political advisor, well-versed in economics,

was realized by the King, who encouraged him to submit proposals on a great variety of matters. Cuoco studied

in detail the natural resources of the Kingdom and made

recommendations regarding reforestation, water control,

swamp reclamation and land conservation. His ability to

familiarize himself with the practical needs of the peo• ple and to adjust government policies to achieve maxim• um results proved to the King his readiness for a more

important portfolio. When Zurlo relieved him from the

reorganization of public instruction, the King appoint•

ed him Director of the Royal Treasury, with the autho-

rity to reorganize, as he deemed necessary, the finan•

cial structure of the Kingdom. Of the importance of his

office "... bastera dire che il direttore del Tesoro - 17 -

doveva, tra l'altro, proporre al ministro delle Finali• ze ' toutes les dispositions qu'il croit propres a. ga- rantir les interets du tresor ou a simplifier la marche des operations, et toutes les changements qu'il juge soit, dans le personnel soit, dans la distribution du travail de l'interieur du Tresor.1 ossla rinnovare da cima a fondo quella complicata amministrazlone. Lavoro immane che il Cuoco compl in un paio d*anni,riuscendo a condurre la Tesoreria napoletana, dai caos in cui l'av'eva trovata, a qull'ordine, semplicita e snellez- za in cui la lascid nel 1815 e che ne feeero fino al i860 una delle meglio organizzate di tutta 1'Europa."(23)

The appointment attested the King confidence in Cuood's practical organizing ability. With his new powers,

Cuoco immersed himself in the busuness of state, trying to inform himself on every phase of the national economy with the same objective rationalism he had shown during the years at Milan when he had studied the Department of the Agogna, with impartial consideration for the interests of both people and government.

These multifarious activities taxed his physical and mental resources. In May 1815, when the fall of - 18 -

Napoleon brought the Bourbons back to Naples, he suffer• ed a mental collapse already prefigured by two earlier attacks,one at the age of fourteen,the other during his difficult years at Milan. He tried for a few months to adjust to the changed order, but, although on the basis of a Decree of the Peace Convention of Casalanza, he retained his position at the Treasury, before long he lapsed into a state of lunacy with arson!stic ten• dencies. ( This led him to destroy many of his manus• cripts.) For several years, with a few periods of par• tial lucidity, he continued to w vegetate", untiliin consequence of a bruise on his left leg he developed gangrene. He died on December fourteenth,1823 without even becoming aware of the various political movements taking place throughout Italy, movements that attested the renewed vitality of an Italian national spirit * whose servant he had been. He was buried in Naples on December fifteenth. Ill

rt Ti dird un*altra volta le mie idee sullo studio della morale,... sulle cagioni delle contraddizioni che ancora vi sono tra precetti e precetti, tra i libri e gli uominij e forse allora converrai meco che di questa scienza, che tanto inte- ressa l'umanita, non ancora si conos- cono quel principii che potrebbero renderla utile e vera." Cuoco,Frammento VI,p.217.

Although the French and English thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, both pre-revolu- tionary like Rousseau and Montesquieu and anti-revolu• tionary like Burke and de Maistre exerted an unmistak- eable influence on Cuoco, it was the Neapolitan poli• tical economists such as Tanucci and Galiani, Genovesi and Galanti, all admirers of Machiavelli,(24) who direct- edvhis attention to the deep-rooted problems of pover• ty, ignorance and social inequality which were endemic to the Mezzogiormo. These men had modernized and local• ized Machiavelli*s concept of political force as an instrument of reform. Their objective realism encoura• ged Cuoco to analyze the causes of destitution and to propose political and economic remedies for untenable social conditions. Like his masters, Cuoco was severely critical of trans-Alpine ideas of progress and stressed - 20 -

the need for a solution suitable to the poorer and

less informed Southerners who could not possibly keep

pace with the northern developments. The solution lay,

Cuoco believed, in offering an economic incentive to

the lower classes, " presentandOjloro la prospettiva

di unosstato*di vita piu agiato; cosl sarei sicuro di

renderle piu attlve e piu libere.M(25)

The people, themselves, must participate in the

development of a free state, and participate with their

work: M II lavorc.ci rendera indipendenti da quelle nazioni dalle quail oggi dipendiamo; e cosl, accrescen-

do l»uso delle cose nostre, ne accrescera. anche la sti- ma, e colla stima delle cose nostre si risvegliera l'amor della nostra patria." (26) Cuoco»s patriotic

ideal was essentially a moral one, depending on the

virtue of the people. He describes it thus:" Amor di patria, stima di noi stessi, gusto per le belle arti

e per la gloria che e inseparabile dalle medesime,

educazione piu maschia, ambizione piu nobile, facili-

ta onesta di sussistere, la quale, accrescendo nell» uomo l'emulazione, diminuisce l'invldia, tutte le altre virtu che da queste dipendono e che l'accompa-, gnano." (27) - 21 -

Ultimately, Cuoco*s political thought derived from Gianbattista Vico, a Neapolitan,who, after years of study of the Greek and Latin classics, of ancient history, laws and traditions, wrote the Sclenza Nuova

(1736J and in it laid the foundation for a new approach to the history of man. His main thesis was based on the evolution of society from its tribal structure to that of the modern state. His Catholicism led him to question the European Enlightenment and to concentrate on a philological study of ancient culture, its myths, its religious beliefs. From these he drew a concept of history, not an expression of universal reason, as the

Cartesians, but a complex of factors, conscious and un• conscious, shaped and directed by Divine Providence through the mind of man and in perennial evolution.

In a letter to Quagliarelll Cuoco exclaimed: M Profon- do ammirabile ordine di quella Providenza, che liga tutti gli awenimenti i piu disparati, e gli dispone sempre pel meglio!M(28) It was a purely Italic culture, as Vico presented it in his De Antiquissima Italorum

Sapient!a. that appealed to Cuoco, and which prompted him to become one of the first interpreters and promul• gators of the Viconian theory of nations. Although he - 22 -

was not the first or the deepest student of Vico's

works, Cuoco realized the practical application of his

theories for the redemption of Latin culture and con•

sequently the Italian nation. Vico's theory of the his•

tory of nations was to activate the latent Italianism

of the South and later of the whole peninsula, but

Cuoco made it his own only after he had studied the

works of other political theorists and he did not hesi•

tate to select and adopt only such of Vico's ideas as

suited the conditions of post-revolutionary Naples.

The anti-Cartesianism of the older scholar's work,

which stressed a mystical, naturalistic philosophy,

was minimized in Cuoco1s more moderate view of the

religious nature of man. Vico had systematized and gen•

eralized a philosophy which equates the destiny of man

with his religious beliefs. This theory of Gnosis—that man's nature and destiny can be extrapolated from a

study of his religion—could not be seriously endors•

ed by Cuoco who saw religion as an aid for the advance• ment of society but not as an end in itself.

The eclectic political ideas which Cuoco expounded

in his works, particularily in the letters to Russo, - 23 -

have much of Vico*s deductive historical reasoning but reflect even more significantly the empirical ideology of Machiavelli. In his avversion to abstract , and polemic arguments on politics and in his insist•

ence on adapting politics to people , Cuoco is truly

Machiavellian. In the Saggio he says: " Le costitu- zioni si debbono fare per gli uomini quali sono e J quail eternamente saranno, pieni di vizi, pieni di errori, imperocche ... e [in]j credibile che essi vo- glian deporre que* loro costumi che io reputo una se- conda natura, per seguireie-nostre iatituzioni che io credo arbitrarie e variabilis (29)

Machiavelli, in the Discoral sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. had noted that men accustomed to live in a certain way do not wish to change,so, not wishing to recognize evil In their own institutions, they make convenient changes in the laws to suit corrupt men. (30)

In 1796, Joseph de'Maistre had postulated the same idea in his Considerations sur la France, in which he fre• quently cites both Machiavelli and Vico. He says that

" La constitution de 1795,tout comme ses atnees, est falter pour 1* homme. Or11 n*y a point d*homme dans le - 24 -

monde.** (31) Typical of the anti-revolutionary writers de Maistre believed that a constitution must evolve from the traditions, ideas and intitutions of a parti• cular people to suit the need of a particular time iand place. A political system is not transferable. A con• stitution which Is made for all nations is good for none, it is a pure abstraction—a scholastic work de• veloping an ideal hypothesis concerning imaginary peo• ple and places.(32) Cuoco, always a realist, warns against expecting too much of men. He says:" Quando, parlando agli uomini ci scordiamo di tutto cid che e umano; quando, volendo insegnar la virtu, non sappiamo farla amare; quando, seguendo le nostre idee, vogliam rovesciare l*ordine della natura, temo che, invece della virtu, insegneremo il fanatismo, ed invece di ordinar delle nazioni, fonderemo delle sette.w(33)

The theorizing patriots of Naples had believed that

M la rivoluzione fosse 1*opera della filosofia.w

While Cuoco observed that**...la fllosofia aveva fatto poco men che guastarla.M(34) This political objectivi• ty of Cuoco could well be, as Candeloro suggests: wforse per 1'influenza diretta del Burke o del de

Maistre, forse per la propria particolare formazione - 25 -

machiavelli ca e vichiana." (35) Or » as Croce .) suggests, the political determinism of de Maistre may have led Cuoco to a renewed study of Vico's

Sclenza Nuova in order to find the link between natural law and the existing order. !

Cuoco was convinced that a revolution, no less than a constitution,must spring from the expressed desire of the people for social or political better• ment, and must be endorsed by the same social body which initiates the first and must live by the second.

Those who would initiate either a revolution or a con• stitution must beware of philosophical rationalization of their motives and goals. He believed it was a poli• tical necessity to assess the virtue of the existing order before trying to alter the natural progression of history. In this conclusion, his ideas parallel

Burke's. Although Burke's influence is not directly provable, the Reflections on the Revolution in France

(1790) might well have fallen into his hands either in Naples or in Milan. How closely related the ideas of the two writers are can be seen from Burke's state• ment that: H... a good patriot and a true politician - 26 -

always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. w (36) IV

w Io non so quali ti sembrano queste mie idee; non sono le idee del costituzionarii di oggi giorno, forse non sono le idee di nessuno. Che importa? sono le mie, e le credo confer- mate dall,esperienza di tutti i secoli." Prammento II, p.192.

Cuoco, influenced by the political theorists of the past and reacting to the political events of his own times, was able to conceive for Italy a national programme for the future. His writing prefigured the ideals of the Risorgimento and clearly indicated the role of the people in their realization. He did not, however, direct his appeal to the people at large but to the middle class which, alone, had the intell• igence and public spirit required for political lead• ership. For Cuoco, "the people" was not the"masses" of the left wing democratic theorists, but represent• ative groups of men whose private interests were com• patible with the interests of the nation and who might be persuaded to act as a body in the service of the state. In Cuoco's words,"...quel popolo che doveva guidare lo stato—non si dovean ne si potean ricercare individualment bensi doveansi ricercare per classe."(37) -28 -

His critical evaluation of the existing political order had already found expression in the personal but philisophical interchange of letters with Russo which are generally called the Frammentl. and it was systematized and enlarged in the Saggio. As his con• cept of Italianlsm became more mature, he produced not only political articles for the Giornale Itallano but also statistical and administrative studies for government departments, now collected in the Scrittl

Varl. To implement his ideal of civic government and popular education he conceived the Platohe in Italia..

A chronological analysis of these works reveals his development as a political thinker.

The Frammenti (Lettere a V. Russo) are primarily a comment on Pagano's proposed constitution with sugges• tions for its improvement. Already in these few letters we see Cuoco1s originality. His ideas were not, as yet, so sharply defined as those of his friends, Russo and

Pagano, both of whom had already drafted constitution• al projects complete in every detail. Cuoco*s consti• tutional theories were elastic because he saw that the problem was too complex to be readily solved. " $on - 29 -

ho creduto mai facile dare le leggi ad un popolo.

Platone, invitato piu volte a questo cimento, lo credette superiore alle sue forze." (38) For him, a constitution was not an abstract creation but the expression of the national experience. With

Aristotle, he believed that the only viable constitu• tion was the one which the people had created for itself. (39) But when the people can no longer frame their own laws, as in a primitive tribal society, the legislator must assume the responsibility of acting for them as they would act for themselves, respect• ing their prejudices, humouring their foibles, de• manding of them only so much public spirit and self- sacrifice as they are capable of demonstrating.

He does not believe that a constitution consists in a declaration of the rights of citizens. All men know their rights, but some will relinquish them out of fear while others will capitalize on them for personal gain. A constitution should assure that sta• bility by which fear and greed are, neutralized.M La costituzione e il modo di far si' che l,uomo sia sempre in uno stato da non essere ne indotto a venderli - 30 -

[diritti] , ne costretto a cederli, ne spinto ad abusarne." (40) A constitution must spell out the relation of the individual to society by a set of decrees—the law. wLa legge e la volonta generale; ma mentre che la nazione ha la sua legge, ciascun in- dlviduo ha la sua volonta particolare, e la liberta altro non e che l'accordo di quests, due volonta.

L'uomo solo e sempre libero, perche la sua legge non e che la stessa sua volonta." but Cuoco goes on to say that when men unite in a national body " ...crescono col numero le dissimiglianze tra le due volonta, e colle dissimiglianze crescono i malcontenti e gli op• press!." (41)

Cuoco points out that revolutions spring from, the general malcontent of a people that has been grad• ually overburdened with social injustices and finally collapses under an intolerable strain. Therefore, any post-revolutionary constitution must restore the equil• ibrium between social classes, a task which demands of the legislator a deep knowledge of the needs, customs and character of the people. " Quando una costituzione non riesce, io do sempre torto al legislatore, come - 31 -

appunto, quando non calza bene una Scarpa, do torto al calzolaio." (42) Since a people is accustomed to a certain pattern of institutions, it is wise for the legislator to abide by it, altering only those parts that have proved unjust.

He accuses the legislative committee, of which

Pagano was the chairman, of adopting the French con• stitution of 1795 without giving proper considera• tion to the diversity of character and circumstance of the French and Italian people, so the French con• stitution was like a suit of clothes made to the measure of one man and worn by another of a different stature and posture.( 43) Pagano*s constitution seemed to Cuoco "... troppo francese, e troppo poco napoletana." Cuoco well understood the relationship of customs and law and the inadvisability of reform• ing the later before there is a natural change in the former. " Non vi e nazione, quanto si voglia corrotta e misera, la quale non abbia de^ostumi, che convlen conservare; ... Dopo le sue opinloni ed i suoi costu- mi, il popolo nulla ha di piu caro che le apparenze della regolarita e dell'ordine. Quelle leggi - 32 -

sono piu rispettate dal popolo che con maggiori solennita esterne colpiscono 1 sensi.H (44)

The people must be allowed to preserve traditions and ethnic character. In the historical development of a people nothing IS-totally lost; man and his in• stitutions undergo continuous transformation. Trad• ition is the sum of public and private experience, the vital principle linking past to present. It is the duty of the legislator to respect tradition and to interpret the mood of the people in order to frame a constitutional system suited to its partic• ular needs. "Questi avanzi di costumi e governo di altri tempi, che in ogni nazione s'incontrano, sono preziosi per un legislatore saggio, e debbono formar la base del suoi ordini nuovi. (45)

Cuoco criticized Pagano»s constitution for its failure to recognize the important institutions of the old order that must be preserved and for which legislative provision must be made if there was to be any continuity between the old and the new. In• stitutions can not be improvised: they are rooted - 33 -

in the sentiments of the people and change slowly.

A sense of history must regulate all legislative measures. He who wishes to control and guide the peo• ple must simulate obedience to the popular will while actually manipulating its force into constructive channels. In this opportunistic theory,I believe, centers the Machiavellism of Cuoco. What he advocated was an exploitation of the historical strength and revolutionary spirit of thepeople to support the new• ly formed popular government. So he points out that:

" II gran talento del riformatore e quello di menare il popolo in mode che faccia da se quello che vorresti far tu. Ho visto molte popolazioni fare per loro stes- se cio che, fatto dai governo, avrebbero condannato.

•Volendo* dice il Machiavelli,* che un errore non sia favorito da un popolo, gran rimedio e fare che il po• polo istesso lo abbia a giudicare.,M (46)

Cuoco does not deny that Pagano*s constitution is better than those of the other Italian republics creat• ed by France but he suggests that Pagano has not made enough allowances for the human factor. As Burke had remarked: " This sort of people are so taken up with - 34 -

their theories about the rights of man that they have

totally forgot his nature."(47) Cuoco doubts the suit• ability of this constitution"... da darsi agli oziosi lazzaroni di Napoli, ai feroci calabresi, ai leggier! leccesi, ai spurei sanniti ed a tale genia, che forma

...quella razza umana che tu vuoi tra poco rigenerare."

Promptly then, he begs the forgiveness of his friend with an irony softened only by the warm tone of his words. " Ohl perdona. Non ml ricordava di scrivere a coluiuche, sull'orme della buona memoria di Condorcet, crede possibile in un essere finito, quale e l'uomo, una perfettibilita infinita.(48)

One of Cuoco*s main objections to the Progetto regarded the form of representation. Pagano envisaged an Electoral College representing only a fraction of

the population. The deputies named by it would be res• ponsible to the government alone and might even not be known to the people at large. Cuoco insisted upon direct representation, for only by continuous contact with the electorate would the deputy learn its needs and desires, only in this way could he feel the mood - 35 -

of those for whom he must act." E ben difficile far violenza al popolo che elegge da se stesso."(49)

In support of direct representation, Cuoco appeals to Italian experience with municipal self-government.

France had never had strong municipalities comparable to the Italian Comunl. and this might explain, at least in part, the early unification of that country. But this was no reason for Italy to sacrifice one of her most characteristic institutions, an organic develop• ment from the time of the late Roman Empire, which had withstood both feudal anarchy and eclesiastical encroa• chment'. "Io perdono ai francesi il loro sisterna di mu• ni cipalita: essi non ne avevano giammai avuto, ne ne conoscevano altro migliore: forse non era ne sicuro ne lodevole passar dl-un salto e senza alcuna preparazio- ne al sistema nostro. Ma quella stessa natura che non soffre i salt! non permette ne anche che si retroceda; e quando i nostri legislator! voglion dare a no! Io stesso sistema della Francla, non credi tu che la nos• tra nazione abbia diritto a dolersi di un^stituzione che la priva de! piu antichi e piu interessanti suoi diritti?"(50) Cuoco believes that the new constitution - 36 -

should adopt this established political unit—the

commune— and give it sufficient power to assure its

admini strative independenc e.

The inevitable conflict of interests, particular

and general, arrising ln such a division of executive

powers, would be overcome by the establishment of two

separate fields of competence, whereby the individual

representative would further -the welfare of his con•

stituents, while the state would retain its sovereign-

\ ity and act as supreme guide and controller to dis•

tribute equitably the national wealth. Political sta•

bility would thus ensue from a definite allocation of

jurisdiction. Within a localized institution—the Com•

mune—the individual would feel himself an integral

part of the whole. Furthermore, as a member of the

Commune he would appreciate his immediate responsibil•

ity to the body politic. Cuoco felt that the central•

ized state was too far removed from the citizen's int•

erests. Laws should be dictated by the collective will

through ordinances of the Commune, and these ordinances

enacted by the communal administration, would not only

satisfy practical needs, but, even more important, they - 37 -

'I

would appeal to the senses and immagination of the

common people, who Cuoco, like Vico, calls "primi-

tlvesH and "eternally children."

No central government can be aware of the parti•

cular needs of all its parts, nor can it act effic•

iently on their behalf. A rigidly centralized govern•

ment is like one eye and one arm compelled to perform

the task of a thousand eyes and a.thousand arms. Inev•

itably, it parcels out its authority among countless

officials who, for want of local knowledge and person•

al concern, cannot, or will not, fulfil their duties.

Does Cuoco, then, want a federal republic? "No; so

gli inconvenienti che seco porta la federazlone; ma

siccome dall'altra parte essa. cl da infiniti vantaggi,

cosl amerei trovar il modo di evitare quelli senza per-

dere questi. Vorrei conservare al piu che fosse possi-

bile l»attivlta individuale. ...Allora la repubblica

sara ... Io sviluppo di tutta l'attivita nazionale

verso il massimo bene della nazione—il quale altro

non e che la somma del beni privati."(51)

As an example of maximum decentralization he cites - 38 -

Switzerland where every canton has its own parlia• ment without detriment to national sovereignty. To illustrate the advantages of independent communal jurisdiction, he cites the example of a road built - in Molise by the people directly involved. " La strada si ebbe in un anno; e ad onta delle malversazioni che pure vi furono, costo appena un terzo di quello che la costruzione delle altre strade costava."(52)

Direct involvement soon makes the people clvically and economically responsible. As a disciple of Genovesi,

Cuoco is well aware of the paramount Importance of economics in the social system, and he asks Russo:

M Ma quale oggetto e estraneo ad una costituzione?H(53)

His constitutional concept was all-inclusive, it dealt with whatever problems pertained to life in a collective society,M Tutto dunque in una nazione deve formar parte della costituzione. Questa e la ragione per cui tanto difficile e il farne una nuova e tanto pericoloso il canglarne una antica.M(54)

Though Cuoco was not as yet directly involved in political affairs, he was bold enough to criticize

Pagano, his elder by ten years, and the Committee - 39 -

empowered by the French Directorate to draft a con• stitution for the Parthenopean Republic. Of their theoretical approach he says, " Molte massime di quel• le che noi crediamo assiomi delle scienze politiche mi sembrano Inesatte; onde awl en poi che esse non si trovano sempre vere in pratlca."(55) His doubts and fears were dramatically confirmed when, after only six months, the reactionary army of Cardinal Ruffo entered the city of Naples and restored the monarchy. But the abortive attempt to set up a democratic constitution had led Cuoco to an objective reappraisal of the in• trinsic needs of the Neapolitan people. Detailed sug• gestions and theories for a workable constitution he presented to the world two years later in his Saggio storica sulla Rlvoluzlone napoletana del'99. which has been well described by Paul Hazard as an analysis of past mistakes and an incitement to future action. (56) V

" Sempre giovera. osservare come i falsi consign, i caprlccl del mo- mento, l,ambizione de'privati, la debolezza de*magistrati, l'ignoran- za de' proprii bisognl e della pro• pria nazione, sieno egualmente fu- nesti alle repubbliche ed ai regnl; ed i nostri vedranno che qualunque forza senza saviezza non fa che dls- trugger se stessa." Cuoco.Sagglo.I.p.28.

The Sagglo must be included in the anti-revolutio• nary literature which criticized the French system.

The collapse of the Parthenopean Republic, because of the withdrawal of French military support before the revolutionaries were in control of the provinces, had demonstrated how dangerous alien ideologies (can be when applied to practical political circumstances. In this instance, when the Republic fell, most of those who had supported revolutionary ideas were executed in the political reprisals of the Monarchy,which was again all-powerful. Those who escaped execution were exiled from the Kingdom and could not but condemn the

French Directorate for its ineffective application of revolutionary policies, and for its partial and inad• equate involvement in the Italian campaign. But of the

Italian critics, only Cuoco, with his accurate polit- - 41 -

leal sense, personal interest, philosophical pre•

paration, and historical consciousness, was able to

draw from these recent experiences an adequate for•

mula for the liberal thought of the nineteenth cen•

tury. In the Saggio. the theoretical nationalism of

the Frammentl evolves and is given concrete applica•

tion. Cuoco now addressed himself to the problem of

finding a way to implement democratic and constitu•

tional ideas in Southern Italy. He examined the events

of the Revolution and probed the social conscience of

the Neapolitans in order to formulate a code for the political life of his country. Paul Hazard says of the

Saggio; "Definissons done son Essai, un examen de con•

science du peuple napolltain; et en m&me temps un regie d»action qui empeche de retomber dans les fautes

deja commises.1* (57)

In his examination of the Neapolitan Revolution,

Cuoco gives his measure, not only as an historian but as a writer. By his intellectual power and sensitivity,

he moves the reader from the position of detachment

to one of commitment. The Saggio has been justly com• pared to a Greek tragedy, in which Fate determines the - 42 -

course of events and man succumbs to an Inevitable

destiny. As Cuoco says, "Le grand! rivoluzioni poli-

tiche occupano nella storia dell'uomo quel luogo

istesso che tengono i fenomeni straordinarii nella

storia della natura." (58) But man in his blindness

is able to analyze the facts only after the catastro•

phe. He-cannot anticipate the course of history. The

French Revolution, of which the Parthenopean was the

continuation, was but one aspect of the general evol•

ution of nationalism. Cuoco observes, "Io credeva di

far delle riflessioni sulla rivoluzione di Napoli, e

scriveva intanto la storia della rivoluzione di tutti

i popoli della terra, e speclalmente della rivoluzione

francese. Le false idee che i nostri avevano concepite

di questa non han poco contrlbuito al nostri mali."(60)

His criticism of the French Revolution is at once

objective and impassioned. He notes that, although it

was the inevitable outcome of political conditions, it reduced the country to chaos. Cruelty and violence

were the result of abstract principles, principles

which were not understood or needed by the French any• more than by the Italians, so that this provofced a -43 -

universal cataclysm. "Non vi era esempio di rivolu- zione che, volendo tutto riformare, avea tutto di- strutto." At one blow national life was severed.

The revolution " ... avea nel tempo istesso attacato e rovesciato l'altare, il trono, i diritti e le pro• priety delle famiglie, e finanche i nomi che nove secoli avean resi rispettabili."(60) The leaders of the Revolution had lost the very sense of history which had made the Revolution inevitable and in their enthusiasm became alienated from the people by whom they were then abandoned. This, Cuoco sees as the crux of every revolution and counter-revolution. Revolu• tions are born of the senses and imagination of the common people, who are essentially incapable of com• prehending abstractions. As Cuoco says, "I saggi sono inutili a produrre una rivoluzione." (6l) Comparing the failure of the French revolution to the success of the American movement for independence, he says,

"Chi paragona:- la Dichiarazlone de'diritti dell'uomo fatta in America a quella fatta in Francia, trovera. che la prima parla ai sensi, la seconda vuol parlare alia ragione; la francese e la formula algebraica dell'americana." (62) - 44 -

Lacking wise direction, France continued in its

chaotic course until it was stopped by a dictator.

Italy, like the rest of Europe, was swept by the

republican fervour, but while France was ready for

radical change, Naples was not. Therefore the Par-

thenopean Revolution was essentially passive; passive because of an alien inspiration which did not reflect

the political mentality of the Neapolitan people. MLe

idee della rivoluzione a Napoli avrebbero potuto

essere popolari, ove si avesse voluto trarle del fondo

istesso della nazione. Tratte da una costituzione stra- niera, erano lontanissime dalla nostra, fondate sopra massime troppo astratte, eran lontanissime da'sensi,

... dai nostri capricci, dagli usl nostrt."(63)

Even the French Revolution would have run a diff•

erent course had it not been for foreign intervention,

that is, the European Coalition against France. As

Cuoco comments in the Saggio: "Una guerra esterna, mossa con uguale ingiustizia ed imprudenza, assodo una rivoluzione, che senza di essa sarebbe degenerata

in guerra civile." (64) In Naples, it was the Monarchy

which created and confirmed the revolutionary trend - 45 -

J

by the ill-judged severity of its police measures.

The few young republicans of the city were so, more

from affectation and the desire to follow the lat•

est fashions than from political conviction. The

court ordered their arrest and trial with the result

that they became martyrs of a republican movement

which in Naples, had no actual existence. Cuoco con•

cludes: Se vol perseguitate le opinioni, allora esse

diventano sentimenti; il sentimento produce l'entu-

siasmo; l*entusiasmo si comunica; ... finalmente l*o- pintoae^perseguitata diventa generale e trionfa."(65)

Few Neapolitans understood the French Revolution,

even fewer approved of it, and none wished for a rev• olution at home; nevertheless an atmosphere of insur• rection was created by the very measures taken to sup• press it. This complete misapprehension of public op• inion, Cuoco attributes to the excessive rationalism which blinded alike the French Jacobins and the.' • It• alian Court. All had been exposed to the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which, in the name of Reason, denied the value of feeling, of intuition, of exper•

ience. And so, the Neapolitan people, sentimental by - 46 -

nature, conservative by instinct an habit, was con• fronted from both left and right with ideologies it could neither understand nor accept. w I bisogni del• la nazione napoletana eran diversi da quell! della francese: i raziocinii del rivoluzionarli eran dlvenu- ti tanto furenti che non 11 poteva piu comprendere."(66)

Cuoco continues his analysis of pre-revolutionary

Naples by stating that this southern kingdom was essen• tially Mediterranean. By culture, tradition and inter• est it belonged to the Mediterranean Basin and it should have fx&Eowed a political course which would have kept it within that sphere. Unfortunately, the

Bourbon Court thought otherwise and played into the hands of the two Northern powers, Austria and England, which were concerned with the Mediterranean only as a field for political Intrigue an commercial exploi• tation. This error of judgement placed the Kingdom in a state of political unrest and economic instab• ility which led to war and finally to revolution.

This error Cuoco attributes, like so much else that displeased him, to a lack of pride ln things Italian - 47 -

to insufficient patriotism. He blames the court for its addiction to foreign fashions. Queen Maria Caro• lina never attempted to assimilate Neapolitan culture but instead tried to force on her subjects her own mania for everthing foreign. Foreign clothes and for• eign fashions were the rage; and French and English were spoken at court rather than Italian. From the imitation of foreign costumes and speech it was a short step to the adoption of alien ideas and opinions. The inevitable consequence was the failure of nation• al spirit, **La mania per le nazioni estere prima av- vilisce, indl ammiserisce, finalmente ruina una na- zione, spegnendo in lei ogni amore per le cose sue.? (68)

For Cuoco, the Neapolitan Revolution—like the other revolutions which occured during those decades in Italy—was the negation of that spirit of Italian- ism which he was so eager to develop in the Italian people. He was not anti-revolutionary because he cri• ticized the revolutionary patriots, neither was he anti-Bourbon merely because he criticized the govern• ment. His criticism had a much deeper origin and must be regarded as an expression of the politico-juris- - 48 -

dictional mentality he had developed before 1799, a mentality much more Italian than most of the pat• riots who had formed their ideas during the revol• utionary period. His opposition was the expression of patriotic principles. "Chiunque avea ripiena la sua mente delle idee di Machiavelli, di Gravina, di

V ico, non poteva ne prestar fede alle promesse, ne applaudire alle operazioni del rivoluzionarii di

Francia, tostoche abbandonarono le idee della monar- chia costltuzionale."( 68)

We see in the Saggio that for Cuoco the revol• utionary period was an example of that French ab• stractionism which he had already denounced in the

FraTiwientl« He now illustrates in detail what, in his own opinion, had contributed to the failure of the

Monarchy in this revolutionary crisis. "Se il re di

Napoli avesse conosciuto lo stato della sua nazione, avrebbe capito che non mai avrebbe essa ne potuto ne voluto imitar gli esempi della Francia."(69) The

Royal policy had been formulated by a foreigner—Sir

John Acton—and was not Neapolitan but Austrian. Any policy which ignored the intrinsic Neapolitan spir• it was destined to fail. The appointment of the - 49 -

Englishman, Acton, as Prime Minister was folly.

Cuoco points out an example of Acton's lack of fore• sight." Conveniva serbare un'esatta neutral Italia quale ne* primi anni della rivoluzione francese av- rebbe dato un immenso smercio del nostri grani. Ma

Acton e la regina credevano poter far morire i fran- cesi di fame." (70) Acton understood neither the people or their circumstances. " non conosceva; ne la nazione, ne le cose," (71) and with his politico-economic pol• icies founded on mere theory, he kept the country in a chronic state of poverty and unrest. Equally disas• trous was the choice of the Austrian,Mack, as Comman• der in Chief. Mack, according to Cuoco, understood nothing except his own greatness and the perfection of his military tactics. Cuoco's contempt for the general is evident in his description of the tactical genius without battle sense. " Vuoi conoscere a segni infallibili uno di quest! cap!tan!? Soffre pochissimo la contraddizione ed i consigli altrui: il criterio della verita e per lui non gia. la concordanza tra le sue idee e le sue cose, ma bensl tra le sue idee mede- sime ..."(72) Mack's military defeat, the flight of the King, the arrival of the French,, and the proclam- - 50 -

action of a republic, were all, for Cuoco, the proof of a common want of realism.

The people had been aware only of their immediate needs, whereas the leaders of the Parthenopean Republic, men whom Cuoco immortalized in his Sagjgio, were philo• sophical idealists alienated by their social condition from the masses they tried to inspire. w La morale de* republican!, troppo^superiore a quella del popolo e stata una delle cagioni della nostra ruina. La secon- da cagione fu che il gran numero de'repubblicani si separo-soverchio dai popolo." (73) The patriots weree incapable of creating and directing a genuinely popular movement, but their valour was only too well attested in their desperat defence of their positions against the Sanfedisti and the British Navy. Their heroic res• olution was apparent even in their capitulation to

Cardinal Ruffo, who, in accepting their surrender, recognized the courage of their stand. In the end they had to relinquish their hope of an independent republic but. even in this negotiated surrender, Cuoco commemr- orates their greatness of spirit."Si sono tanto ammira- ti i trecento delle Termopili perche seppero morire; i nostri fecero dippiu: seppero capitolare coll'inimico, -51 -

&£jppe(&o una volta fare riconoscere la Repubblica

napoletana.M(74)

The Neapolitan people had more than sufficient

reason to be dissatisfied with the Bourbon rule and

on this dissatisfaction should have been based a plan

of action: HLa nostra rivoluzione, essendo una rivolu•

zione passiva, l'unico mezzo di condurla a buon fine

era quello di guadagnare l'opinione del popolo.H(75)

But what appeal was made to the people? Nonel At most

it was regaled with abstract theories which it was too

ignorant to comprehend. No regard was shown for tradi•

tions, for prejudices, for principles, or for institu•

tions. Under such conditions, to reform everything was

to destroy everything.

Too much had been destroyed. Even the religion of

the people had been ignored. Religion as practised in

the South of Italy was not like that practised in

Prance. At Naples w ...la religione del popolo non era

che una festa; e purche la festa si fosse lasciata

non si curava di altro. ... In Francia la religione

interessa piu lo spirito che il cuore ed i sensi; in - 52 -

Napoli piu i sensi ed il cuore che lo spirlto."(76)

Therefore religion should have heen used to ensure the participation of the faithful in the national cause, "la religione cristiana ridotta a poco a poco alia semplicita del Vangelo; ... e la religione che meglio d'ogni altra si addatta ad una forma di governo moderato e liberale."(77) Cuoco felt that Christianity, as interpreted by the common people, was close to the revolutionary Ideals of liberty, fraternity and jus• tice, and should, therefore, have attracted the people to the newly created republic. This was an idea which had been expressed previously at Naples by Francesco

Conforti who, among others, (e.g. Pagano, Galanti,

Filangeri, Russo,) had already advocated a religion in• tegrated, to some extent, with the state, since the people had amply demonstrated their attachment to ec• clesiastical Institutions and tradition. "Non e ancora dlmostrato che un popolo possa rimanere senza religi• one: se vol non gliela date, se ne formera una da se stesso. Ma quando vol gliela date, allora formate una religione analoga al governo, ed ambedue concorreranno al bene della nazione: se il popolo se la forma da se, allora la religione sara indifferente al governo, e talora nemica."(78) During the revolution these pre- - 53 -

cepts were forgotten.

The Republican Government tried to be democratic, but it appeared to be definitely anti-clerical. The government did not, in fact, adopt any positive pol• icy toward the religious orders and left the decision

to the republican leaders in the various centres. This authority in the hands of radicals produced violent attacks on the ecclesiatic orders, their institutions,

their properties and their liturgical observances.

But, as Cuoco points out, wLa liberty delle opinioni, l*abolizione de'culti, l'esenzione de'pregiudizi era chiesta da pochissimi, perche a pochissimi interes-

sava.M(79)

The people, whose allegiance was at first undecid•

ed, disillusioned with the republican programme, join•

ed the reactionary army of Cardinal Ruffo to restore

the old order. The .people had shifted their support because their will had not been anticipated. Cuoco says, "Ecco tutto il segreto delle rivoluzioni; Conor scere cid che tutto 11 popolo vuole, e farlo; egli allora vi seguira; ...w(80) In these lines is found, - 54 -

crystalized, the political theory of Vincenzo Cuoco .

He perceived, better than any other Italian, that revolutions are prompted by needs, but he also felt /

that behind the needs were men, with ideas inherited

through centuries of culture. The political extrem• ism of the patriots and of the Sanfedisti was equally abhorrent to him, and he concluded that, as in Robes• pierre's France, so in the Parthenopean Republic, fan• aticism had undermined the will to survive. "L'uomo e di tale natura, che tutte le sue idee si cangiano, tutti i suoi affetti, giunti all'estremo, s'indeboli- scono e si estinguono: a forza di voler troppo esser libero, l'uomo si stanca dello stesso sentimento di liberta ... Nec totam libertatem, nec totam servitu- tem pati possumus." (81) sense of reality showed him that any people, if uncontrolled, will oscillate between extremes of serfdom and licentious liberty, until the equilibrium—a moderate liberalism—is restored by far-seeing leaders.MQuesto e il corso ordinario di tutte le rivoluzloni ... il popolo si agita senza sapere ove fermarsi: corre sempre agli estremi e non sa che la felicita e nel mezzo.M(82)

This formula anticipates by half a centuryCavour's

.juste ..milieu. - 55 -

The people are at the centre of Cuoco*s political

system. They are the living force which makes and un• makes institutions, which preserves dynasties or de•

stroys them, which builds churches, cultivates the land, practices arts and trades, develops the sciences, and defends the national honour—but only if guided and inspired by some man, or group of men, wise enough and strong enough to divine and direct their latent energies. Without leaders, the people have no alter• natives to apathy or violence.

Cuoco*s fame as an historian is assured by his impassioned objectivity, by his rare capacity for ob• serving, narrating, analyzing contemporary events without bias or illusion—but not without sympathy for the martyrs of liberty, pity for the blind.instruments of reaction, confidence in a more enlightened gener• ation which would have learned from the mistakes of their fathers. Objectivity was the quality he most valued in historical writing, since history must serve to educate the nation.

Romano has said of the Saggio, HSe la storia e arte, pochi libri di. storia al pari di questo, la raggiungono.H(83) Cuoco*s style, though lucid and - 56 -

practical, is charged with an emotion which he calls patriotism. His account of the heroes of the Repub• lic is at once serene and impassioned. HLa giusta posterita, obbliera gli error! che, come uomini, han potuto commettere coloro a cui la Repubblica era af- fidata; tra ess! pero ricerchera invano un vile, un trad!tore. Ecco cio che si deve aspettare dall'uomo, ed ecco cio che forma la loro gloria.M(84) Of his own teacher, Pagano, he writes: "Pagano Francesco

Mario, II suo nome vale un elogio. II suo Processo

Criminale e tradotta In tutte le lingue, ed e ancora uno del migliori libri che si abbia su tale oggetto.

Nella carriera sublime della storia eterna del gen- ere umano vol non rivenite che l'orme di Pagano che vi possano servire di guida per raggiungere i vol! di Vico."(85) In such prose, sober, nervous and elo• quent, Cuoco is alble to trace an Individual character or a complex image with maximum precision. In chapter thirty-three we find:MSchipani rassomiglia a Cleone di Atene, a Santerre di Parigi. Ripieno del piu caldo zelo per la rivoluzione, attlssimo a fare sulle scene il protagonista in un tragedia di Bruto."(86) The comparison gives us the figure of the Jacobin hero, - 57 -

fired with ancient virtue but careless of modern real• ities. The death of Caracciolo, the battle of Procida, the defense of the fort of Vigliena and the fall of

Altamura cannot leave the re'der unmoved because Cuoco prints them indelibly on the imagination."Aceresceva il furore dei soldati Sanfedlsti la nobile ostinar zione degli abltanti, i quali in faccia ad un nemico vincitore, col coltello alia gola, gridavano tuttavia

Viva la Republical ... Altamura non fu che un mucchio di ceneri e di cadaveri intrinsi di sangue." (87)

The Saggio is a masterpiece of precise but eloquent criticism , political and intellectual, combining the disparate elements of factual analysis and patriotic fervour. As Croce has said MI1 Saggio ... riverito come insigne monumento di amor patrio, ...e realmente opera capitale di pensiero storico, . (88) VI

M Io credo, dunque',' dice Ponzioa Cleobolo, "cid che dicono i nostri sapient!, i quali dan per certo che ne'tempi antl- chissimi l'ltalia tutta fio-_ riva per leggi, per agricol- tura, per armi e per commercio. . ..Questo solamente posso dirti io: che allora tutti gl'italia- ni formavano un popolo solo, ed 11 loro imperio chiamavasi et- rusco." Platone II, p.157.

... , Had Cuoco not written anything else, the Saggio would have secured him a place in every anthology of Italian literature as well as in the history of the Risorgimento. But during the fifteen years of his political activity, from the Revolution of 1799 to 1815, when his mind failed, he was not only a keen observer of the political and economic aspects of the society around him but also a prolific writer. He conceived the Platone in Italia, an epistolary novel glorifying the past greatness of Latin culture, to further his hopes of a better future for Italy. The work was popular in tone, more sentimental than schol• arly, intended to fire the readers imagination and Inculcate the love of the country by renewing a just sense of national pride. "Non si puo mai giovare alia - 59 -

patria, se non si ama, e non si puo mai amare la

patria se non si stima la nazione."(89)

Cuoco's master Galanti, in his Descrlzlone geo-

grafica delle due Sicille had aimed at creating a

history based on an analysis of the country's phy•

sical conditions. In the Platone. Cuoco endeavoured

to lay the foundation for a cultural history of

Italy, based on its classical tradition but never

losing sight of its present and future potential.

"II Platone" he writes to the Viceroy Eugene Beauhar-

nais, " e diretto a formar la morale pubblica degli

Italian!, ed ispirar,loro quello spirito di unione,

quell'amor di patria, quell'amor della millzia che

finora non hanno avuto." (90)

The Journey of Plato through Southern Italy, which

supplies the historical framework of the tale, is

but a device to express the most personal ideas

and sentiments of the writer—all of which, it may

be noted, were developed ln less fanciful style in

the articles and letters of the same years, now

gathered in the Scrittl Vari. In the novel, Cuoco - 60 -

draws on his ample knowledge of the classics to give

more significance to the factual observations based

-on his first-hand experience of the institutions,

laws, beliefs and political events of his own day.

It is Cuoco who speaks through Plato, Cleobolus, Ar-

chitas and Pontius, and he addresses himself not to

the fifth-century Tarentines or Samnites but to nine•

teenth-century Italians. Plato's remarks to Cleobolus

make this point clear and demonstrate once more Cuoco*s

concern for Italian unity. " Cosl cade, o Cleobolo ...

qualunque altro impero ove non e unita. Cosl cadra la

Grecia se non cessera la dlsunione tra le varie citta

che la compongono, tra gli uomini che abitano ciascu-

na citta. Imperciocche, ovunque e sapienza, ivi si ten-

de all'unita*. ... Ovunque non vi e unita, ivi non e

piu ne sapienza, ne virtu, ne vita, e si corre a gran

giornate alia morte."(9l)

The tale, however, does not linger on that note of

warning but dwells on the subject of Italian cultural

pre-eminence, which Cleobolus illustrates to a Greek

priest: M Sappi dunque che un tempo tutta 1'Italia e

stata abitata da un popolo solo, che si chlamava - 61 -

etrusco. Grand! per terra e per mare eran le di lui forze; Antichissima e l'origine di questo popolo; le memorie della sua gloria si confondono con quella de' vostri iddii e de» vostri eroi ...." (92) He glori• fies the Italian past and, with Vlco, traces Italian civilization back to the Etruscans rather than the

Greeks. The Platone magnifies past glories and con• trasts them with the present decay,in order to illus• trate the new civilization that can, and must, be shaped from these ancient materials. " Vedi, da una parte 1*Italia simile a vasto edificio rovinato dai tempo, ... la un immenso pilastro ancora torreggia intero, qua un portico si conserva ancora per meta; in tutto il rlmanente dell'area, ...avanzi ...che oggi non sono altro che rovine. Ben si conosce che tali material! han formato un tempo un nobile edifi• cio, e che lo potrebbero formare un*altra volta; ma l,antico non e piu, ed il nuovo dev'essere ancora."(93)

His faith in the brilliant future of an Italy united and respected is seen in contrast to his awareness of existing social disparities in the peninsula.

Through Cleobolus he says, " Tutta l'ltalia riunlsce - 62 -

tanta varieta di slti e di cielo e di caratteri tanto

marcati e forti, che per essi mi par che non siavi

via di mezzo. Daranno gl'Italiani nella storia, ...

gli esempi di tutti gll estremi, di vizi e di virtu,

di forza e di debolezza. Se saranno divisi, si faran- no la guerra fino alia distruzione ... se saranno uni-

ti, daranno leggi all*universe*• (9^)

To arrive at unity within so much disparity and

antagonism, the brotherhood of the people must serve

as a bond. Pittagora concepl l'ardito di segno di

ristabilir la pace e la virtu, senza di cui la pace non puo durare. Egli volea far dell'Italia una sola

citta; onde l'energia di ciascun clttadino avesse un

campo piu vasto per esercitarsi, senza essere costret-

to a cozzare continuamente con coloro, che la vicinan-

za, la lingua, il costume facean nascer suoi fratelli

e la divisione degli ordini politici ne costringeva

ad odiar come nemici; e l'energia di tutti non logora-

ta da domestiche gare, potesse piu vigorosamente difen-

der la patria comune dalle offese de* barbari." (95)

Repeating the words of Socrates to the Greeks,Cuoco

warnsi those Italians: " Tra vol ne vi puo ne vi deve

esser guerra: cid che vol chiamate 'guerra' e sedizio- - 63 -

ne, di cui, se amassivo veracemente la patria, dovreste arrossire." (96) These are idealistic precepts for warring Italians, but since Cuoco belie• ves so strongly that history is the great teacher he cannot relinquish his hopes for the unity of his country.

What advice does he have for those Italians who wish to reach the goal? To create a national spirit.

This spirit, or better virtu, needed for unity did not exist in Italy; it had to be created. M ... a questa meta non si poteva pervenlre senza virtu e senza ottlmi ordini civili: onde non vi fosse chi volesse e chi potesse comprar la patria, chi volesse e chi potesse venderla; ma l,ambizione di ciascuno, vedendosi tutte chiuse le vie della vilta e del vizio, fosse quasi costretto a prendere quella della virtu." (97)

Thus the only course of action was to educate the people who, -ignorant of their own position and impor• tance, had no goals other than immediate, selfish ones.

And there must also be education for those members of the middle class who will support and lead the masses. - 6k -

w ... perche un popolo con centomila piedi ha sempre bisogno di una mente per camminare, e con centomila braccia, non ha una mente per agire.M(98) Cuoco is

explicit in defing the need for a diversified educa•

tion—as diverse as the people to be educated-.-At the lower level it must be directed to the heart as well as to the remind of the people, appealing to their nat• ural inclinations and based upon their authentic trad• itions. In contrast to this popular education there must be a special curriculum for the class destined

to govern the nation. It, too, must have a well-def• ined ethical content. The elite must learn to behave in such a way as to deserve the respect and esteem of the common people. Here, as in the Sagglo. Cuoco shows his intimate knowledge of the peasant class. M Non per- dete la stima del popolo, se volete istruirlo. II po• polo non ode coloro che disprezza. Di rado egli pud conoscer le dottrine, ma giudica severissimamente i maestri, e li giudica da quelle cose che sembrano spes- so frivole, ma che son quelle sole che 11 popolo vede.

Che vale 11 dire che il popolo e ingiusto? Quando si tratta d'istruirlo, tutfi diritti sono suoi; tutt'i doveri son nostri, e nostre tutte le colpe." (99) - 65 -

But civic virtue cannot be taught by professors of philosophy, nor can It be imposed by legislative decree. Only if their natural leaders set them the example, will the people find that tranquillity and security which are the conditions of progress. The people are not incapable of reason, but they are trad• itionally endowed with prejudices, errors, vices and above all imagination. Any programme of constitution• al reform must, first, evoke the sympathy of those it is to benifit. "Quando tu avrai incise le Ifeggi della tua citt& sulle tavole di bronzo nulla potrai dir di aver fatto, se non avrai anche scfolpita la virtu nel cuori de'suoi cittadini." (100)

Custom and law are equally important in the science of politics: the law must conform to the natural order of society and must not do violence to custom which has an even more intimate hold upon me^s imagination.

"La legge e sempre una, perche la natura dell'intelli- genza e immutablle. Mutabile e la natura della materia, di cui gli uomini sono in gran parte composti; ... E necessita, dunque, conoscere del pari la natura sem- pre mobile di questo fango di cui siamo format!, onde - ,66-

sapere per quali cagioni i nostri costumi si allon- tanano dalle leggi, per quali modi, per quali art! si possano riawicinarsi alle medesime; il che forma l'oggetto di tutta la scienza dell*educazione.w(101)

A further consideration—a point very dear to

Cuoco and already treated in the Saggio—is the func•

tion of religion and the position it shoud keep in

Italian society. For Cuoco, religion was a social in•

stitution which the government might not ignore. Only if the State integrates the prevalent religious assum• ptions within its organization, will it gain the re•

spect and approval of the Individual believer. By thus

emphasizing utility Cuoco does not wish to minimize the importance of religion per:se, as a life of the spirit, nor does he mean to define its liturgic or dogmatic aspects. He is convinced that for social stability three things are needed: "E'necessita che vi sieno ugualmente costumi, rellglone e leggi: uno che manM, la cltta, o presto o tardi, ruina." (102)

Thus, since the first goal for Italy is the develop• ment, through the education of its people, of a new moral spirit, it follows that religion is a proper - 6? -

concern of the legislator. If well handled, religion becomes a tool for the state. ...^.mai religione emen- dera utilmente i costumi se non sara dipendente del governo; ne mai religione, che non emendi i costumi e non ispiri l'amor della patria, potra esser utile alle

Stato." (103) But it is not the function of religion to anaesthetize the people, putting an end to the nat• ural struggle within society. " Ove essa [la lotta di classej non e, ivi non e vita: ivi un giogo di fer- ro imposto al cittadino ha estinte tutte le virtu, lo stimolo a tutte le piu grandi imprese ... Quanto dura la vera vita di una cittsl? Tanto quanto dura la di spu• ta. "(104)

The life of the state depends on the complex inter• action of functions which sustain it as a dynamic org• anism. Groups of citizens must function as contribut• ing members of the state according to their own vital interests. Cuoco dismisses the idea of absolute equa• lity as a harmful illusion since it ignores the var• iability of individual purpose and personality, and he decries Russo's communist Utopia as a fatal tyran• ny. Mindful of the innate differences in men, he - 68 -

admonishes future legislators that there will always be classes: " Vi saranno sempre patrizi e plebei, per- che* vi saranno sempre i pochi ed i molti; pochl ric- chi e molti poveri; pochi industriosi e molti sciope- rati; pochissimi savi e moltissimi stolti." (105)

And,as in times past there was a constant opposition between patricians and plebeians, so in his own day, he found the same antagonism persisting between rich and poor. The upper class, enjoying hereditary advan• tages, was in a position to exercise a preponderant influence on the legislators whereas the lower class, lacking education and without property, could be eas• ily bribed or intimidated. Therefore, the stability of the city, or state,must rest on the equilibrium of these naturally antagonistic social forces—an equili• brium which can only be assured by that emergent sec• tion of society, the middle class. Ne* i ricchi, po• chi e tirannicl, ne* i poveri, molti e tirannicl in . senso inverso del ricchi, possono regger lo stato

... Essi j"uomini ottimij non son mai per l^rdinario ne tra i massimi, corotti sempre dalle ricchezze, ne tra i minimi, ...awillti sempre dalla miserla." (106) - 69 -

This confidence in an active and enlightened middle class was already explicit inthe Sagglo. but the"con• cept of a continuing and fruitful class struggle is first developed in the Platone. As Gentile says: II

Platone in Italia ... riacquista tutto 11 suo valore, ed e la piu grande battaglia,- combattuta dal Cuoco, per 11 suo ideale della formazione dello spirito pub- blico italiano." (107) To this we could add that, though the work lacks the artistic merit of the Saggio. it abundantly illustrates inlts pages the rational adaptation of Italian tradition to the contemporary problems of the country. Cuoco,s Viconian interpreta• tion of history makes of the Platone in Italia a cor• nerstone of the political literary structure of the

Bisorgimento.

As has been frequently pointed out, Cuoco's work anticipated Gioberti's Primato morale e civile degli

1tallani(1843). and. although separated by almost half a century, the two works aim at the same development of.a national consciousness. Both authors insist that the nation cannot create harmonious and prosperous in• stitutions if it is not aware of its potentiality, and - 70 -

of its ability to develop that potential. To this end,

both works are based on a sense of national pride jus•

tified by the past greatness of the Roman Empire and

of the Renaissance. But while Gioberti centres his c

thesis on the attractive force of the Papacy, the only

stable institution in Europe after the fall of the

Roman Empire, Cuoco rests his programme on the latent

forces Of the Italian people, on the power of that .

national Intellect which had once conquered all the

known world and then, ten centuries later, with the

Renaissance, had given modern Europe the impetus of

scientific development. The similarity of the two programmes then, is limited to this evocation of the

Italian past as the motive for present effort. But

that is all. Gioberti sees the state as an extension of the Papacy, while Cuoco, nearer to eighteenth- century rationalism, counts on the revolutionary cri•

sis of Europe in general and of Italy in particular, to develop a society which will include religion but which willb&govyerned by popular will and by the power of its own secular tradition and history. In this respect, we may note that the Platone had a much clos•

er parallel in the writings of Mazzini, who in the - 71 -

programme of the Giovine Italia declared that the po• litical Independence and unification of Italy would be impossible without a concommitant intellectual development of the common people, and that M...l»uni- ta morale d»Italia e pregiudiziale rispetto a quella politica." (108) What had seemed in Cuoco*s time an' idealistic dream became, half a century later, the catalyst needed for the political formation of Italy. VII

" I popoli son tanto piu dlf- ficlli a maneggiarsi quanto piu sono ignoranti; quanto mi- nore d il numero delle idee che essi hanno, tanto piu stra- ni lor sembrano gli ordini nuo- vl.M Cuoco.Scri tti.I.p.5.

Now that we have, although briefly, analyzed Cuoco1s main works and defined their inspiration, noting his realistic approach to the shortcomings of his country in the Saggio. and his proposals for the revival of the Italic spirit in the Platone. it will be-useful to analyze the articles he had written for the Giornale

Italiano.(109) In this journal, which began publication on January the third, 1804, Cuoco developed in a more definite and particular form ideas already expressed earlier and anticipated others which were to be elab• orated after his return to Naples inl806.

Needless to say, the idea of a united and indepen• dent Italy was not peculiar to Cuoco, and it may be interesting to compare his arguments with those for - 73 -

example of Francesco Lomonaco in hisHfiapporto al

Cittadino Carnot" (1799) and of Cesare Paribelli in an open letter to the French Directorate in November

1799, when Naples had already surrendered to the mon• archists. For Lomonaco, the only cure for Italian ills was national unity. M Qual riparo a tantl mali? Qual rimedio a piaghe si profonde? Come imprimere alle de- presse ed awilite fisonomie italiane il suggello del- l'antica grandezza e maesta? Uno dei principal! mezzi, secondo me, e l'unlone." (110) But what is the condi• tion for unity and independence ? Foreign intervention.

Only the French are strong enough to sweep away the old order in Italy as in the rest of Europe, to break the British monopoly of sea power, to end Austrian ex• ploitation of Italy's economic resources, to estabilish a true balance of power among their European allies, first of whom will be the new Italy; " Realizzando ques- ta idea, gl'Italiani avendo nazione, acquisteranno spi- rito di nazionalita; avendo governo, diveranno politi- ci e guerrieri; avendo patria, godranno della liberty e. di tutfi beni che ne derivano,... (111)

Paribelli, a Northerner from Sondrio, is no less - 74 -

urgent in his appeal for French assistance to the

Neapolitan patriots who have spoken and acted for

all Italy." Legislator!, e direttori, osate alfine

di soddisfare il voto universale dell'Italia, e di proclamare la sua indipendenza e la sua riunlone,

il di cui centro esiste gla nella santa energia dei

figli del Vesuvio... parlate, e la Repubblica Italia na esistera." (112) But how is this Italian Republi called into existence by the French Directorate, to

justify its independence? According to both Paribel- li and Lomonaco, by studying geography while .waiting for the French to expel the Austrians,the'Russians and the English. M L*Italia non divisa da grossi flu mi ne da grandi montagne, separata dalle Alpi e dal triplice mare dagli altri popoli, forma una indisso- lubile unita geografica? (113) Not only did such ar• gument ignore the immediate problem, military and political, of both the French and their would be ad• herents in Italy, but they disregarded the only fore permanently capable of uniting the peninsula, its in habitants. Conceived in such terms, the unification of Italy remained a geografical abstraction, without moral significance. - 75 -

As Cuoco had found the Neapolitan Revolution

"passive" because it relied on foreign arms and for•

eign Ideologies instead of making a direct appeal to the people and ensuring their support, so he could not but consider the arguments of Lomonaco and Paribelli superficial and one-sided, and it is in contrast with such essentially negative concepts

—which seemed really to invite Metternich's contempt• uous dismissal of Italy as merely a "geographical expression" — that his own nationalism reveals juts positive though complex entity. He is persuaded that none of the various factors of nationality, race, geo• graphy, culture, religion, economic interests, past history and present commitments are sufficient to make a nation unless they are concretized and assim• ilated by the population within a given area. Upon this condition, and only, upon this condition, will

Italy, " questa terra bagnata dai Maditerraneo," be• come a nation in the full meaning of the term, only then will its history be more than a literary record preserved in unread volumes.

This was the Italy Cuoco envisioned when he set out - 76 -

to write the programme for the Giornale Italiano

and in it are developed most of the ideals and

ideas he believed necessary for the recreation of the nation. MFra noi non si tratta di conservar lo spiri-

to pubblico, ma di crearlo. Conviene avezzar le men-

ti deglfItalian! a pensar nobilmente, ... e far dive• nire cittadini di uno Stato coloro i quali sono nati abitantl di una provineia.M(11^)

In order to become a national entity the people must be made conscious of their latent aspirations and must be inspired with the will to achieve them.

The prerequisite of national unity and independence is the development of individual self-respect as a corollary of national consciousness. " un giornalista di Londra o di Parigi pud mille volte al giorno ripe- tere ai suoi patriot!: - Hoi siamo grandi. - egli

sara. sempre creduto. Un giornalista Italiano, se pro- nunziera questa stessa proposizione, destera il riso." ( 115)

Truth and modesty must be maintained in every page of the Giornale Italiano. for only then will it be - 77-

read with confidence and respect. No careless praise

of Italy is in order nor thoughtless disdain for

things foreign, but a rational evaluation of all ideas,

fashions, events,that may serve to foster the national

spirit. Thus the conscious effort to achieve national

status could be stimulated by a responsible press.

The second postulate for the achievement of nation• hood is; ..l*accordo de guidizi di tutti sucquegli oggetti che possono essere utill o dannosi.M(ll6) Of these, three are fundamental and one is pre-eminent.

ME necessario che tutti gli uomini convengano in tre cose: in rispettar i govern!, in rispettar la religione ed in praticar la morale; e se tra queste cose si po• tesse stabilire una progressione, io non avrei veruna difficolta di dire che la corruzione della morale porta seco il disprezzo prima della religione e poscia del governo." (117) In this triply reinforced respect for the state, the single individual will see the sublimation of what he deems best in himself. Since the State is an ethical entity, the good citizen will treasure his religion, which is identified with the

State, and he will abide by his sense of morality which - 78 -

is also the morality of the nation. A perfect ident• ity of purpose between the individual and the State within a united Italian Republic, to become later an Italian Kingdom, is Cuoco1s goal: an individual and integral national conscience. This was the pro• blem which the Glornaleltallano must resolve.

The problem of motivation already examined in con• nection with the Neapolitan Revolution of 179$ is inverted. The Revolution had tried to impose an extrin• sic unity, aimed at abstract sentiments of human sol• idarity, whereas the Giornale tried to analyze the consience of men in order to affect their spirit and to reawaken that patriotic energy which in the latter part of the century would be called nationalism. For

Cuoco this implied an act of energic volition in which are fused all the particulars needed to shape and guide the national destiny. An effective revolution will sublimate the will of the whole people, not mere• ly the will of a group of philisophic patriots like those Neapolitans who had idealized the people but had kept it outside the revolutionary movement. Cuoco believes that the true revolutionary spirit is not in - 79 -

the Jacobins who are eLlways few, but in the people at the broad base of the social structure. If a nation is to be formed, he repeats, the people must be the artisan, for through its own spiritual growth it will be able to overcome all obstacles. First, be• cause it will feel a direct responsibility to achieve the goal and second because, having achieved it, will feel itself capable of finer things.

The problem, then, was a pedagogic one: to form a nation by Informing the people, to prepare men's minds, to execute their imagination, to direct their will, to call them to action as soon as the opportunity should present itself. And present itself it must, for his• tory is cyclic and every nation has the possibility to opt for greatness if it is capable of making the right choice at the right moment. " Ogni stato ha un perlodo da correre. Tutte la nazioni piccole son de- stlnate ad ingrandirsi o a perire. Quelle non peri- scono, le quali dlspongon per tempo le loro menti all'ampiezza de'destini futuri; onde, quando 11 cor- so degli avvenimenti loro present! le occasion! op• portune, esse, per mancanza di preparazlone, non si - 80 -

ritrovano impotent!. Questa e stata la cagione della debolezza della repubblica de*veneziani, che Machia• velli chiama 'mancanza dl virtu', e che, usando la sua energica espresslone, 'Taglio loro le gambe del salire al cielo.' * (118)

The Giornale was addressed to readers of every social condition in all parts of Italy, from Milan to Palermo, from Turin to Venice. To attract and hold their attention it must deal with an endless variety of topics, legendary, political, historical, anecdotic, statistical, drawing its material from ev• ery possible source and referring now to one, now to another region or city, but seeking always to excite national feeling, to impart a sense of common inter- est in past glories, of common responsibility for the resolution of the present difficulties, and a common hope for a better future. All problems, juridical, ethnographic, archaeological, historical, political, economic, military, industrial, agricultural, social, were to be treated thoughtfully, impartially, thor-, oughly, but never coldly. - 81 -

" Presentare al pubblico quanto piu spesso si possa, le memorie degli altri tempi: non come ta- lora si e* fat to, sfigurate e dirette a turbar gli ordini che si avevano, ma quail realmente sono, e per confermar colla stima di noi stessl gli ordini che abbiamo ... Incominciare a misurarci, almen col pensiero, colle altre nazioni ... ragionar frequen- temente sulle operazioni nostre." ( 119) That is the day to day programme of the Giornale. the practical means by which it will renew the national conscious• ness, persuading the Italian people that " Chi oggi non e grande, e quasi diffida di poterlo divenire,

.. .ricordiamogli ... che lo e>stato una volta."(120)

The modern reader, and especially the foreign reader, may well feel that the Giornale exaggerates the importance of all things Italian and insists too much on its persuasive purpose. But since it was addressed not to an impartial posterity but to contemporary Italians, many of them ignorant and most of them uncritical, Cuoco may well be pardon• ed for having remembered his own observation in the

Saggio that the people do not follow the particular - 82 -

logic of a given argument but have a natural in• clination to perceive its value through the effect it has on their sentiments and emotions. This per- fervid tone is especially notable in the frequent pages on the Renaissance, as for example in this typical passage on the sixteenth century. " ...il secolo in cui rinacquero tutte le arti e tutte le scienze, e tutte rinacquero in Italia, e dall*Ita• lia si diffusero per tutto 11 resto ancor barbaro dell*Europa; si scopersero due nuovi mondi,e tan- ti mail e tanti beni si aggiunsero all,antico; sorsero nuove sette religiose, ed il fermento che esse produssero fecondo i primi semi di quella li- berta di pensare che dovea col tempo produrre e la sana filosofia e l*insensato pirrlnismo; ...Tutti questi avvenimenti o nacquero o agitaronsl e com- pironsi in Italia o per l1Italia o per 1*opera de- gli itallani.w (121) On reading such lines what reader of the early nineteenth century could remain indifferent? And what modern reader will not think of Burkhardt? The truth is that Cuoco*s patriotic bias often inspired him to anticipate, in a partial and fragmentary way, judgements and views which were - 83 -

to make the reputation of those critics and historians who developed and documented them half a century later.

A case in point is Cuoco*s defence of Machiavelli whom he presents not as a cynic but as a realist, and inspired patriot who saw men as they were, analyzed

their actions with imperturbable clairvoyance and t made the inevitable deductions, but who never sacri• ficed to expediency his own ideal of justice and liberty. To Machiavelli, Cuoco atributed words of melancholy grandeur which he might well have spoken on his own account. w II maggior numero ( degli uo- mini) e lngiusto, perche pieno di passioni e servo de*partiti. Io ho voluto scrivere senza passione veruna; ... e li ho offesl tutti. Ho scritto per gli uomini ragionevoli e questo e stato il mio torto: gli uomini ragionevoli son pochi.w ( 122) And he goes on in this and other articles to draw a picture of the Florentine secretary which strikingly pre• figures the detailed rehabilitation of him written by De Sanctis. M Quelli li quali legano le opere di

Machiavelli colla stessa attenzione colla quale leg- gono un romanzo, ... credono che Machiavelli abbia - 84 -

date lezioni di tirannide ... Io sono persuaso che

Machiavelli non voile fare ([questo]| ma vide i costu• mi e gli ordini de'suoi tempi, e ne giudicd con una mente la quale era superiore ai tempi suoi, e in con- sequenza doveva essere per necessita ammirata o bia- simata, e sempre senza ragione perche non era mai ben compresa." (123)

The name most frequently mentioned in the Gior• nale is perhaps that of Gianbattlsta Vico, whose De antiqulsslma Italorum sapientia Q.710 ) still enjoyed great authority among Italian archeologists and whose epic vision of history, obscurely developed in the

Scienza Nuova ( 1730) had anticipated some of the most fruitful ideas of the pre-Romantic :theoMsts, for example Herder. It was in the spirit of Vico that '

Cuoco magnifies Dante as the national poet of Italy, and defends him on occasion against the French.(124)

He esteems Pagano aH the more highly because he had promoted the study of Vico, and he connects with

Vico even such rationalists as Verri, Beccaria and

Filangieri, since their proposed reforms of the penal system and judicial practice was based on an equation - 85 -

between justice and national feeling, culture and temperament. (125)

In fine, the Giornale is at once an example of practical journalism aimed always at the reader—at particular readers in a given time and place—and a revelation of the editor1s versatility and stead• fastness, whatever his topic and whatever the tone it Imposed, whether he is reliving ancient glories, analysing past failures, or predicting future devel• opments, his concern is always to inform, to educate his fellow countrymen. VIII

" L'istruzione deve illuminare e dirigere tutte le azioni del la vita, e per conseguenza de• ve abbracciare tutte le cogni- zioni umane." Cuoco.Scrltti. II,p.10.

Education in all its aspects was Cuoco,s first concern not only while in exile but ajso after his return to Naples in 1806. This second Neapolitan period lasted, in effect, only nine years, but it was even more active than the preceding period at

Milan and no less productive, though writing was now subordinated to administration. Following the French

Army to Naples, Cuoco at once put his mind and his pen at the service of Joseph Bonaparte and then of

Murat for whom he conceived a genuine admiration and in whom he inspired a reciprocal sympathy. The first fruit of this connection was the Bapporto e Progetto per 1' orgsdtezazione dell' istruzione pubblica.

Since a detailed analysis of this work would be beyond the scope of this essay, discussion will be - 86 -

limited to those ideas on education which Cuoco felt were essential for the formation of the Italian spirit. As he states in the opening paragraph;" La sola istruzione pud* renderci l*antica grandezza e„ l,antica gloria. La natura ci ha dati tuttfi capitali; non ci manca che l'industria, cioe' il sapergli conoscere ed adoperare; e questo non pu$' darcelo che 1*istruzione..." (126) The writer, though no longer in exile, remained as objective in his appraisal of the social conditions around him as he had been in Milan. Thus he advocated a system of education, not limited to members of the wealthy classes but freely extended to all the population:" L'istruzione e* un bisogno di tutt»i ciittadini, di tutto lo Stato: dunque dev*essere accessibile a tutti." (127) Cuoco sees as a direct result of the Revolution - one of the few good outcomes of that ill-fated experiment - the new importance of popular education. The governing classes had been forced to recognize not merely the existence of the common people but their latent power. Only by educating them, by making them into citizens, could - 87 -

the social order be stabilized and the continued

existence of the state be assured. MLe rivoluzioni

soglion svelare il gran segreto della forza di

quel popolo che nei tempi di tranquillita suol

esser la parte passlva di uno Stato. ... Chiamarlo a parte della difesa dello Stato e delle leggi

senza istruirlo e lo stesso che renderlo pericoloso,

facendogli fare cio che non sa fare.M (128) This observation in the Giornale Itallano (1804) posits not only a local but a national need for educating

the masses. Cuoco sees in the restlessness of the common people, following on the Revolution, an immediate danger to society which is only too likely to fall into anarchy and disorder once tradi• tion and social convention have been undermined.

The need to educate the peasantry and the proletariat had never been greater. Only through them can the

State achieve stability and eventual unity. (129)

Once this need of education is established,

Cuoco, with his concept of the State as an ethical -

juridical entity, proposes that the same legislative body which guides all other elements of the State - 88 -

should assume the responsibility for popular education. Since the state is the product of the collective will, Cuoco sees no alternative but to impose on the State the task of educating the citizens and by this means inspiring them with a patriotic spirit capable of carrying the nation to its proper goal.

His pedagogical writings are constantly focused on questions of feasability and practice. WE necessario, dunque che una nazione sia tutta intera istruita? Not Faremo forse di tutt'i clttadini tanti sapienti? No, ... L'istruzione da che dev* essere pubblica, non ne viene in conseguenza che debba essere eguale in tutte le classi del popolo. ... E» necessario che vi sia un»istruzione per tutti, una per molti, una per pochi. (130) It is in this advocacy of a practical education to equip the citizen for a useful life that the Rapporto assumes its modernity. As Cuoco had already noted in the Platone:w

Riunite i saggi di tutta la terra, ... e formatene una citta. ... Essa non meriterebbe neanche il nome di citta, perche le mancherebbe ... la vicendevole dipendenza tra di loro (cittadini) per tutto cio che - 89 -

rende agiata e sicura la vita." (131) Accordingly,

he proposes a division of popular education into

Sublime. media, elementare (132) in which science,

commerce and technology would be studied and trans•

mitted to the people for their respective practical

application.

Nor can education be limited to men, since all

men are what women make them.M ... Le sole spartane

sanno dare de'cittadini alia patria. ... perchenon

pud dare al figlio l*educazione di un cittadino

colei che ha la condizione e la mente di una serva." (133)

What useful parallel, we may ask, could be drawn between

the women of Sparta and those of nineteenth-century

Italy? There was no doubt in Cuoco*s mind concerning

the duty and position of women in Italian society.

For women as for men he proposed free public instruc•

tion which should fit them to do more than nurse their

children. This was still the Napoleonic era, when

the emperor wished to have women who believe ...»not

-women who reason.* Yet Cuoco dared to propose to the

Emperor's brother-in-law a programme of education for

the weaker sex: "Quando le donne saranno educate, - 90 -

sara compiuta per meta l'educazione degli uomini." (134)

The first sense of morality must be impressed in the

child's mind by its mother, and it is the duty of the

State to educate her for her rightful role in society.

"E* necessario che ai popoli si dia (una morale)

altrimenti se la formeranno da loro. (135)

To this natural morality, imbibed with the

mother's milk, will easily be added an explicit sense

of morality preached by the religious organization

within the state. Although Cuoco believed that

religious indoctrination should take place outside

the classroom, he never tired of insisting on the

practical appeal of religion to the impressionable

majority of the population. Since religion is thus

recognized as a useful instrument of education, the

legislator must see that it is profitably integrated

within the general programme of the State. "E

necessario che la legge le dia la norma, perche

spetta alia legge, alia sola legge, il determinare

qual debba essere la virtu del cittadino. E necessario che la filosofia le indichi i mezzi, perche la filosofia e quella cui spetta conoscere il - 91 -

cuore e la mente umana e le vie per insinuarvi la virtu e la saviezza." (136)

It is evident that for Cuoco all aspects of education are determined not by dogma or tradition but by reason and are to be rationally evaluated and used for the broader purposes of the State - to develop and maintain a knowledgeable, and hence stable, electorate. The integration of education in the home, in the school and from the pulpit Is the business of the state. "Facciam si' che costumi, leggi, religione non abbiano che un sol fine, che e quello di render 1 cittadini piii virtuosi e la patria piu felice." (137)

With this in mind, he advocated the institution of a faculty of Philology at the University of

Naples. He felt strongly that through this science man would learn to evaluate in: perspectiyehis own nature and needs. "Vico ha dimostrato che le nazioni hanno una vita al pari degl'individui,M their laws and myths are but the reflection of their tradi• tions and aspirations. To Illustrate this point he - 92 -

presents one precept from Vico's work. "L'eti- mologia... dimostra la legge colla quale si

forma il linguaggio, non dell1individuo,... ma delle nazioni." Rightly then, for the progress of legisla-

IV

tion he insists that: ... se questa scienza

[Filologia] ricevesse la sua perfezione ... sarebbe il piu gran passo che si potrebbe fare nella piu difficile delle scienze, nell'arte cioe di dar le leggi ai popoli, tante volte malmenati da principi di una falsa filosofia, che ignora equalmente la natura dell'uomo

e quella dell*universo." (138) Cuoco, like Vico, saw that "Questo mondo civile certamente e stato fatto dagli uomini, onde se ne possono, perche se ne debbano, ritrovare i principi, dentro le modificazioni della nostra medesima mente umana." (139) IX

H Le nazioni ... barbare amano di essere sgravate dai tributi, perche non hanno desiderii superflui; le nazioni colte si contentano di pagar moi to, purche quest* aumento di tributo acresca la forza e ml- gliori la sussistenza nazionale." Saggio VIII, p. 50

After having noted the salient points of Cuoco*s political and pedagogical programme, it is pertinent to consider his proposals for economic reform.

If the people of Italy were to share in making their own history they must make better use of their physical potential. The future rested not only on the emulation of past glories and the creation of a national spirit but also on the study and applica• tion of modern technological methods to satisfy the basic needs of the people, especially for food. As

Napoleon is reputed to have said, " An army marches on its stomach," so Cuoco might have said, " A nation advances on its stomach." He was well aware that in many regions of the South the people existed on the border line of starvation and he knew that a - 94 -

hungry people can not contribute to a progressive state. In the distant past, Italian agriculture had set an example to the rest of the world by the quantity and quality of its produce. Cuoco points out that: " I primi nomi che gli antichlssimi greci diedero all1Italia furono Esperia ed Oenotrla. La chiamarono. • La terra del vino e del pane.* M (140)

He envisioned a re-establishment of the conditions which prevailed when M Ne le produzioni del suolo itallano eran solamente sufficlenti al bisogno del grandissimo numero de' suoi abitatori; ma tanta erane l'abbondanza che il prezzo ne era estremamente vile." (l4l)

He was convinced that the soil and the sun of the country could, with the industry of the people, enable Italy again to feed all its population and to export surplus produce in exchange for other useful merchandise. But in order to reach such a level of productivity, he saw that many reforms must be

Implemented in the various branches of agriculture.

It was the grasp of economic requirements shown in

Cuoco1s Milanese writings and the knowledge of the social conditions in the South revealed In the Saggio - 95 -

that caused Murat, in November 1806, to appoint

Cuoco to the Istltuto d*Incoraggiamento del

Mezzoglorno, of which he bacame president in

June, 1810. In his official capacity, he was able not only to formulate practical reforms but also to specify their application to particular regions. When he assumed the presidency he wrote,

M II bisogno e forse egli solo sufficiente ad attivare quella intrinseca naturale energiaj non si estende oltre le idee, e quel bisogno, che vince l'indolenza, non pud superare 1'Ignoranza." (1^3)

These words illustrate Cuoco*s belief in the advantages of education for economic progress.

Provision must be made by the government for the desemination of modern ideas to the uninformed worker. He suggests the creation of a permanent

Institute of Agriculture and Industry, w Affidisi dunque 1*istruzione delle art! ad un colleglo che sia eterno, come deve essere l*industria d*una na- zione. (144) He advocates a study of new methods in agriculture and industry and their circulation to the farmers and artisans who would benefit from - 96 -

them. " Riportare continuamente gli uomini all' osservazione e il modo ... piu efficace d'insegnar loro cio che e utile." (14-5)

When, in September 1810, he became President of the Provincial Council of Molise, he made an extensive tour of the region and in 1812 presented to the Council a detailed report of his observations.

His first consideration was the geographic delinea• tion of the provincial borders which, he felt, ought* to follow the natural line of the rivers enclosing the Province. He continued with a proposal for the division and consolidation of the various communal administrative centers to reduce duplication of services and increase their efficiency.

Regarding the production of wheat, the chief commodity of the Province, he warned the Council on the foreign competition which would ensue at the end of the Napoleonic campaign. He forsaw that wheat would be exported from the shores of the Black Sea and from the Americas, and with this in mind he evaluated the position of the Kingdom in relation - 97 -

to world markets. H Sembrera/ strano che io,

parlando della provincia di Molise, imprenda a

parlare di tutta l'Europa; ma io credo che il nostro stato sia sempre relativo, e che noi non

istaremo mai bene se non ci metteremo a livello di cio che ne circonda." (146) He added that, although the soil and climate of Molise was ideal

for the cultivation of grain, the administration must encourage individual farmers to diversify

their crops in order to extend the fertility of the

soil, instead of clearing wooded areas in order to

seed greater acreage. Non si e pensato a coltivar meglio, ma a coltivar di piu; si sono desiderati i terreni nuovi, perche i soli fertlll,^ ove ogni altro modo s*ignorava per rendere la fertllita ad una terra gia coltivata; i boschi si

sono distrutti con un furore incredibile.M (14?)

This aspect of soil conservation and the advantages of reforestation, Cuoco presented to

the Council in several well-documented briefs. He understood the extreme importance of flood control and the necessity of treed areas to check the erosive - 98 -

force of water. " Quale e mai la causa principale di tutte le alluvloni, le inondazioni, ... slamamenti, ... ristagni, ecc? Lo sboscamento inconsiderato ... che ogni anno diventa maggiore; ... si guasta il corso de'torrent! e de'fiumi; si producono paludi; l'aria diventa micidiale, la regione inabitabile; ed allora si pensa a bonificare." (148)

To illustrate the importance of reforestation he cites the proverbial fertility of Crotona: "Ma allora i boschi erano sacri," while at the time of his report, the area, composed mostly of clay, was barren and any rainfall generated a putrid gas which rendered it uninhabitable. So he asks, " Che ci vorrebbe per migliorare tali region!? Piantagoni. Bisogna plantare ove vi e acqua: piantare per diminuirla, piantare per contenerla, piantare per conservarla, piantare per dirigerla." To those who tried to promote swamp drainage and reclamation without reforestation, he says: " Separare la cura delle bonifiche da quella delle piantagioni e lo stesso che non voler ne piantagioni ne bonifiche." (1^9) - 99 -

Since the administrative centre must reflect the general efficiency and prosperity of the region,

Cuoco extended his concern to city planning and made proposals for the modernization of the capital of Molise, Campobasso. " Campobasso, per esempio, manca di case di abltazione, ... non ha strade interne, non una fontana per acqua da bere.

Campobasso, diventata capitale di una provincia ... crescera' ... quanto piu crescera, tanto piu sara brutta e disadatta. Perche? Perche* si acresce senza disegna, perche si lavora senza un piano generale." To remedy this situation and to beautify the cities of the whole Kingdom, a plan is urgently needed: " Sarebbe necessario che ogni citta (non escludo neanche Napoli), ... si formasse un piano stabile della sua costruzione interna in modo che riunisse la messima comodita, salubrlta e bellezza possibile." (150)

His interests in the physical improvement of the province of Molise, did not prevent his frequent travel throughout the Kingdom to observe short• comings and to recommend measures for rehabilita- - 100 -

tion. His experience in Molise he applied to the other regions, not in general terms but presenting solutions to the particular localities with de• tailed descriptions of the policies best suited to ensure prompt realization of their goals. He was not content with generalities because, as he says,

"Forse, se si volesse formare un sistema generale prima di conoscere i fatti, il sistema sarebbe erroneo. Ma, se, al contario, s'incomincia dalla cognizione de fatti, vi sara modo di formare dopo qualche tempo un sistema generale adattabile a tutto il Regno." (151)

While compiling these various reports, he was forcibly confronted with the need for a system of statistics throughout the Kingdom. To meet this need, he Insisted on an accurate and complete documentation of economic activities. He believed, with Galanti, that economic reform depended on a particularized knowledge of every aspect of society. M La sola storia riunita alia statistica pud darci questo paragone tanto necessario tra cid che e stato e cid che e; ... mostrandoci cid che si faceva quando si - 101 -

faceva bene, puo insegnarci a non far male. Senza

sapere quello che si e fatto, di rado si pud sapere

cid che si ha da fare." (152)

In his study of statistics he emphasized the

relation between economic stability and population

distribution. As he had observed in the Statistica

della Repubblica Clsalpina. w ... la maggior parte

del progress! che una societa possa fare in terre ed

Industrie consiste nell'aumento e nell'uso della

popolazione." (153) This observation was repeated

in the Platone where he remarks that the number of

the citizens is the nation's most important asset.

If they are outnumbered, virtue may teach them how

to die in battle but only a caprice of fortune could give them victory. (15*0 Let the government take care to augment the population, since, as Galanti had already pointed out, there is a very close relationship between population and industry.

Cuoco had noted in the Frammenti that the needs of the people had increased much faster than the country's ability to meet them and he rejected Russo's - 102 -

plea for a return to the simple life. He believed that wants, like ideas, cannot regress and that eloquence cannot postpone progress. So he suggested that it be used rather to inspire in the people love of the soil and satisfaction in tilling it. "L'amor della campagna, che succedera al furore che oggi abbiamo per la capitale, cl liberera da quella smania per le bagatelle della moda, ... e l'uomo impieghera 11 suo superfluo in un lusso di arti, ... piu glorioso all'individuo, piu utile alia nazione." (155)

It can be seen, then, that Cuoco was no less concerned with economic reform than with education and politics. He had learned, first from his father, then from Galanti, that economic progress is the surest incentive for the majority of the people to assume political and cultural responsibility. In this, no less than in his advocacy of truly representa• tive government, he anticipates the man who actually accomplished for Italy what he himself had most ardently desired—Cavour. Cuoco*s reputation was made early. At Naples, as a very young man he had exchanged ideas, impressions,

judgements with the most enlightened men -of that high• ly intellectual society which, on the brink of revol• ution, was urgently seeking new solutions to old prob• lems but failed to reaffirm any accepted values. Stim• ulated by this intercourse and sobered by the tragic failure of so much high thinking, he composed his

Saggio and within a year of his exile had established himself as the official interpreter of the new polit• ical movement which was sweeping Italy. Active employ• ment followed with heavy, but creative, administrative duties. Perhaps in consequence, none of his writings after the Saggio. do full justice to his artistic ab• ility. But there is a steady progression in his thought which, with increasing experience, becmes always broad• er, not merely in the range of subjects treated but in its ever more conPplex standard of judgement. From critical analysis he passes to creative construction, eloquent persuasion, detailed realization.

His Italian contemporaries followed him with sustained interest, and his influence on the next gen- - 104 -

eration was considerable. Indeed, one may find some• thing of Cuoco in all the exponents of the Bisorgimento from the centre-right to the far left—in men like

D»Azegllo and Ricasoli as well as in Mazzini, in Gio• berti no less than in Cavour. When they had done their work, and his, he was half forgotten, as the precursors of a successful revolution are likely to be, until the

Fascist crisis invited all thoughtful Italians to ass• ess yet once again their political heritage. Durlngfehe last forty years Cuoco has been most carefully studied by Gentile, Nicolini, Cortese, Battaglia and a score of other competent scholars. In France, Paul Hazard gave Cuoco a place of honour in his monumsntal work on the influence of the French Revolution on Italian literature. In England and America he has received little attention, and this is 1_unfortunate, since no one better than he illustrates the formal differences and basic points of contact betweenr-Latin and Anglo-

Saxon thought on political matters. - 105 -

Notes:

1. Vincenzo Cuoco,Al Conte G.B.Giovio. Scrltti Vari. (Bari,Laterza,1924) v.II,p.313. 2. "A T.C.yScritti.v.II.p.297. 3. "Al Cittadino Robert!."Ibid.p.302

4. V.Cuoco,Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napole- tana.Und,Ed.(Torino,Pomba,l852) I,p.27. 5. P.Hazard,"V.Cuoco et la philosophie de l»Italia- nisme." La Revolution Francaise et les let• tres Italiennes.(ParTs.Hachette.1910) p.219. 6. "A Quagliarelli," Scrltti.v.II.p.298.

7. "A Giovio",Ibid.p.313. 8. "AQuagliarelli",Ibld.p.298.

9. "A N.Q.".Saggio.p.23. 10. Scrltti. v.II,p.232. 11. "F.M.Pagano" Illuministl Itallani.c.d.F.Venturl. (fcicciardi,Milano, 1962) p.785,9^0; v.Delf iaro, p.Il6l,also in Scrltti.I.p.24l.v.II.p.249. 1 ? •, 12. Scrltti.v.II.p.362. 13. Ibid.p.363,v.also B.Croce,"Luisa Sanfelice" Rivo• luzione napoletana.p.115-188.

14. Saggio.I.p.27-8.

15. Scrittl.v.II.p.301. 16. Ibid. 17. "Introduzione" Saggio.p.19-20.

18. Scrltti,v.II,p.310-11. - 106 -

19. Ibid.p.304.

20. "Rapporto e Progetto" Ibid.v.II,pp.3-164.

21. Ibid.p.3.

22. Ibid.pp.411-15.

23. Ibid.p.383.

24. Illumlnlstl.pp.254-56.

25* "Frammentl". Saggio. IV,p.219.

2$. Ibid.p.218-9. 27. Ibid. 28. Scrltti.v.II.p.299. 29. Frammenti,I,p.l84. 30. N.Machiavelli,"Discorsi" LXVIII.Opere.(Ricciardi. Milano,1958), p.l42. 31. I.de Maistre,Considerations rur la France.(Rusand, Lyon,1834) p.90. 32. Ibid,p.206. 33. Frammenti,VI,p.220.

34. Saggio. XVIII,p.89. 35. G.Candeloro.Storia dell'Italia moderna.(Feltrlnel- li,MIlano,1956) p.284. 36. E.Burke.Reflections on the Revolution in France. (New York,Hoit-Rinehart,1962)Ed.W.Todd,p.193• Reference to Burke's work is found lnthei^Sag- ??. £io,p.30.

37. --Frammenti,II,p.l96. - 10? -

38. Ibid.I,p.183.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.II,p.195-

41. Ibid.p.191.

42. Ibid.I,p.184.

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid.p.185.

45. Ibid.186.

46. Sagglo,XIX,p.98.

47. Burke.Reflections.p.77.

48. Frammenti,I f.;'l85.

49. Ibid.II,p.189.

50. Ibid.p.188.

51. Ibid.p.193.

52. Ibid.p.195.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.Ill,p.205.

55. Ibid.p.207.

56. Hazrd.Revolution.p.219.

57. Ibid.p.221.

58. Saggio,I,p.27.

59. Ibid.XVIII,p.89.

60. Ibid.II,p.29. - 108 -

61. Saggio,p.18.

62. Ibid.VII,p.46.

63. Ibid.XV,p.?9.

64. Ibid.II,p.29.

65. Ibid.VI,p.39. 66. Ibid.VII,p.46.

67. Ibid.V,p.37. 68. Ibid.VII,p.46,f.

69. Ibid. 70. Ibid.X,p.61.

71. Ibid.VIII,p.51.

72. Ibid.XII,p.71. 73. Ibid.XXXVI,p.136. 74. Ibid.XLVIII,p.l60. 75. Ibid.XVI,p.84.

76. Ibid.XXV,p.114.

77. Ibid.p.115. 78. Ibid.p.116.

79. Ibid.XIX,p.95- 80. Ibid.XVII,p.89. 81. Ibid.XVIII,p.92.Tacitus.

82. Ibid.XIX,p.94. - 109 -

83. M.Romano,V.Cuoco nella storia del pensiero e de- l'unlta d'Italia.(Firenze.Nuova Italia7l933)

84. Saggio.L.p.172.

85. Ibid.p.175-

86. Ibid.XXXIII,p.130.

87. Ibid.XLV,p.156.

88. B.Croce,Storia della storiografia Italiana nel

secolo XIX.(Barl.Laterza.1947).P.187.

89. Saggio. XVT.p. 85.

90. Scritti.v.II.p.337. 91. Cuoco.Platone in Italla.@vols.(Bar!.Laterza.1928) v.II,257.

92. Ibid.p.244.

93. Ibid.p.258.

94. Ibid.v.I,p.20.

95. Ibid.p.74.

96. Ibid.

97. Ibid.

98. Ibid.p.75.

99. Ibid.p.87.

100. Ibid.p.139.

161. Ibid.

102. Ibid.p.84.

103. Ibid.v.II,p.148.

104. Ibid.p.167. - 110 -

104. Ibid.p.167.

105. Ibid.p.147.

106. Ibid.p.161.

107. G. Gentile, SJtudi vlchiani. (Messina.Princlpato. 1915)pT386". 108. G.Ma2zinl.Scritti.Edl2.Nazion.v.IV.Fol.III.p.40.

109. The most important of these are collected in the Scritti vari.edited by N.Cortese,F.Nicolini, in two vols.(Bari,Laterza,1924)

110. LomonacoJRapporto al cittadino Carnot"Saggio.p.257.

111. Sagglo.p.257.

112. Croce.L'idea dell'unita dfItalia. Rlvoluzione.Napo- letana.p.337. 113. Saggio.p.254. 114. Scritti.v.I.p.4.

115. Ibid.

116. Ibid.p.3. 117. Ibid.p.8.

118. Ibid.p.17. 119. Ibid.v.II,p.6.

120. Ibid.v.I,p.5. 121. Ibid,pp.44-5.

122. Ibid.p.45.

123. Ibid.p.208,The same objective view of Machiavelli was presented half a century later by Fran• cesco De Sanatls.v.Storia della letteratura italiana,v.II.pp.57.112. - Ill -

124. Scritti,v.I,p.235,237,v.II,p.267. 125. Ibid.v.I,p.267.

126. Ibid.v.II,p.3.

127. Ibid.p.6.

128. "Educazione popolare" Scrltti.v.I.e.96. 129. Gentile. Studi. p . 418-9.

130. Scritti.v.II.o.5. 131. Platone. v. I .p. 86.

132. Scrltti.v.II.r>.6.

133. Platone.v.I.00.2^-7.

134. Scrltti.v.II.p.21. 135. Ibid. p.16.

136. Ibid.v.I,p.94.

137. Scritti.v.I.p.ai.v. Gentile.Studi. o.4l6. 138. Scrltti. v. II. t). 63-4.

139. Vico.Scienza Nuova. Opere.(Milano.Ricciardi p.172. 140. Scritti,v.I.0.16*5.

l4l. Ibid,p.175. 142. Saggio.X.p.61.

143. Scritti.v.II.pp.l67-8. 144. Ibid.p.172.

145. Ibid. - 112 -

146. Scrltti,v.II,p.189.

147. Ibid,p.207.

148.1 Ibid.p.211.

149. Ibid.

150. Ibid.p.204.

151. Ibid.p.224.

152. Ibid.p.177.

153. Ibid.v.I,p.282.

154. Platone. v.II,p.186.

155. Frammenti,VI,p.2l8. Bibliography

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