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.