Cosmopolitanism and small homeland. The political writings of Alvise Zenobio, Venetian Aristocrat (1757- 1817).

Journal title RISORGIMENTO (IL)
Author/s Alessandra Manzi
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/1
Language Italian Pages 29 P. 117-145 File size 210 KB
DOI 10.3280/RISO2016-001005
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The essay retraces the adventurous political life of Alvise Zenobio, Venitian aristocrat, who from 1789 to 1816 lived between London and Paris and actively discussed the significance of the revolutionary and Napoleonic years. At first a supporter of the French revolution to the point of translating a pamphlet by Abbe Seyes into English, he later looked at the birth of a democratic republic with some concern, finally becoming an enthusiast of Napoleon’s victories in Italy. In 1797 Alvise Zenobio cheered at the collapse of the Venetian Republic and in 1802 he translated and published a work by Hume, which he hoped would inspire the Constitution of the Italian Republic. Quite soon, though, he became disappointed by Napoleon and when the French Empire crashed he tried to plead the return to independence of the Venetian Republic. The essay analyses Alvise Zenobio’s many political works - often even crediting him with some anonymous ones - and sets light on a political career which exhausts the Enlightenment’s cosmopolitanism in the acceptance of a rediscovered small homeland.

Keywords: Venetian Republic, Enlightenment’s cosmopolitanism, small homeland

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Alessandra Manzi, Cosmopolitismo e piccola patria. La scrittura politica di Alvise Zenobio, nobile veneziano (1757-1817) in "RISORGIMENTO (IL)" 1/2016, pp 117-145, DOI: 10.3280/RISO2016-001005