Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VIAMEDIAITALICA (The Scholar, the Jurist, the Priest: Moderation on the Italian Peninsula, 1700-1750)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-01-13 al 2022-01-12
VIA MEDIA ITALICA had two main objectives.
Firstly, it posed a new interpretation of the intellectual history of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the eighteenth century. Drawing a study across three intellectual personae - the scholar, the jurist, the priest – it used the concept of moderation as an ordering device. This provided a contextualised study of the figure who sat at the heart of this intellectual culture: Lodovico Antonio Muratori.
Secondly, it used this historical study to open up the concept of moderation and probe its saliency for the present day. In an age of political polarisation the appeal to centrism, compromise and moderation is, in some quarters of both popular and academic discourse, growing. At the same time, this appeal demonstrates that this moderation a virtue which we understood too little. Through its historical enquiry, VIA MEDIA ITALICA aimed to lay the foundations for a more serious, historically informed, study of the concept of moderation. An enhanced academic grasp of moderation might then feed into popular, and political, discussion, and elevate that discussion to new heights.
These two objectives coalesced in an undergirding objective of enhancing the researcher’s academic and professional profile. Central to this was his development of an interdisciplinary and outward facing research agenda, which can harness insights from intellectual history and bring them to bear upon political questions of relevance for the present. This research agenda aligned with the curation of the researcher’s communication skill set, within a higher education context in the form of work with students, within a broader education context through work with schools, and with the wider public.
Firstly, it posed a new interpretation of the intellectual history of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the eighteenth century. Drawing a study across three intellectual personae - the scholar, the jurist, the priest – it used the concept of moderation as an ordering device. This provided a contextualised study of the figure who sat at the heart of this intellectual culture: Lodovico Antonio Muratori.
Secondly, it used this historical study to open up the concept of moderation and probe its saliency for the present day. In an age of political polarisation the appeal to centrism, compromise and moderation is, in some quarters of both popular and academic discourse, growing. At the same time, this appeal demonstrates that this moderation a virtue which we understood too little. Through its historical enquiry, VIA MEDIA ITALICA aimed to lay the foundations for a more serious, historically informed, study of the concept of moderation. An enhanced academic grasp of moderation might then feed into popular, and political, discussion, and elevate that discussion to new heights.
These two objectives coalesced in an undergirding objective of enhancing the researcher’s academic and professional profile. Central to this was his development of an interdisciplinary and outward facing research agenda, which can harness insights from intellectual history and bring them to bear upon political questions of relevance for the present. This research agenda aligned with the curation of the researcher’s communication skill set, within a higher education context in the form of work with students, within a broader education context through work with schools, and with the wider public.
These core objectives were realised through a suite of work packages (WP).
WP2 and WP3 focussed on the production of academic deliverables, through conducting research with published and archival sources, producing written outputs, and assembling an overarching research agenda. The work performed within this research frame can be divided into three categories.
• Firstly, research outputs contribute significantly to our understanding of early eighteenth-century Italy. Significant process was achieved in the production of a monograph manuscript, which has been invited for submission to Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (University of Liverpool Press), scheduled to appear in 2024. This monograph will present a new reading of Italy between 1700-1750, with a focus on a) scholarly reformism and b) intellectual moderation, culminating in c) a new reading of the core protagonist, L.A. Muratori. In addition to this, two single-authored and peer-reviewed chapters will appear in collected volumes, due to appear in 2022, which present case-studies in this historical landscape focused on the interface between scholarship, religion and philosophy.
• Secondly, research outputs contribute to the formation of a coherent enquiry into the concept of moderation in early modern Europe. Two single-authored peer-reviewed articles have taken up this theme in a political context (a study on Machiavelli) and a scholarly context (a study on Richard Simon). The researcher is editing, and contributing to, two special issues of journals, due to appear in 2023 (The European Legacy) and 2024 (History of European Ideas) respectively. These will gather together and frame a series of articles by other researchers, concretizing a new collaborative research agenda around the theme of moderation.
• Thirdly, research outputs transpose this early modern enquiry into a historiographical enquiry focused on the twentieth century. In the first instance this transposition is the subject of single-authored peer-reviewed article on the creation of the ‘moderate enlightenment’ by historians in the twentieth century. This fed into a line of research into the transatlantic appeal to moderation in historical scholarship and political philosophy in the mid-twentieth century. This promises to be the most impactful research output of this project, providing a launchpad from which to grapple with the recalibration of politics since the 1950s, including the gestation of the European Union. This will take the form, initially, of two drafted articles, and in the long-term, a single-authored monograph.
WP4 focused on the communication of research findings through a range of media. Research outputs have been linked to blog posts on the project website, along with several stand-alone pieces linked to presentations at conference and workshops. The researcher created and delivered a new undergraduate module which surveyed the history of political thought in early modern Europe, with a recurrent focus on the concept of moderation. The researcher created and delivered module aimed at secondary school students on the theme of moderation, compromise and civility, in dialogue with the charity The Brilliant Club. The researcher planned and coordinated a major international conference on the theme of moderation in eighteenth century Europe, which ran over the course of two days, was accessible to the wider academic public, and was reported upon on the transnational side H/Soz/Kult. The researcher planned and delivered a series of seminars and lectures at the host institution, which retained core aspects of the project while also broadening these out to achieve wider appeal.
WP1 and WP5 concern the management of the project and the training the research received. Upon completion of the project the researcher has become a more adept teacher, with experience of managing modules for undergraduates and contributing to co-delivered modules and supervising postgraduate students. He has extended his research competency in the history of political thought, into historical research on the twentieth century, and in genuinely interdisciplinary directions. Experience translating individual research into collaborative ventures prepares the researcher for positioning his scholarship in much wider academic and non-academic environments. The researcher has also developed administrative experience, managing this project’s progression and finances, and contributing to the School Research Committee as a standing member. Collectively this suite of experiences and competencies have had a transformative effect on the researcher’s academic and professional skill-set.
WP2 and WP3 focussed on the production of academic deliverables, through conducting research with published and archival sources, producing written outputs, and assembling an overarching research agenda. The work performed within this research frame can be divided into three categories.
• Firstly, research outputs contribute significantly to our understanding of early eighteenth-century Italy. Significant process was achieved in the production of a monograph manuscript, which has been invited for submission to Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (University of Liverpool Press), scheduled to appear in 2024. This monograph will present a new reading of Italy between 1700-1750, with a focus on a) scholarly reformism and b) intellectual moderation, culminating in c) a new reading of the core protagonist, L.A. Muratori. In addition to this, two single-authored and peer-reviewed chapters will appear in collected volumes, due to appear in 2022, which present case-studies in this historical landscape focused on the interface between scholarship, religion and philosophy.
• Secondly, research outputs contribute to the formation of a coherent enquiry into the concept of moderation in early modern Europe. Two single-authored peer-reviewed articles have taken up this theme in a political context (a study on Machiavelli) and a scholarly context (a study on Richard Simon). The researcher is editing, and contributing to, two special issues of journals, due to appear in 2023 (The European Legacy) and 2024 (History of European Ideas) respectively. These will gather together and frame a series of articles by other researchers, concretizing a new collaborative research agenda around the theme of moderation.
• Thirdly, research outputs transpose this early modern enquiry into a historiographical enquiry focused on the twentieth century. In the first instance this transposition is the subject of single-authored peer-reviewed article on the creation of the ‘moderate enlightenment’ by historians in the twentieth century. This fed into a line of research into the transatlantic appeal to moderation in historical scholarship and political philosophy in the mid-twentieth century. This promises to be the most impactful research output of this project, providing a launchpad from which to grapple with the recalibration of politics since the 1950s, including the gestation of the European Union. This will take the form, initially, of two drafted articles, and in the long-term, a single-authored monograph.
WP4 focused on the communication of research findings through a range of media. Research outputs have been linked to blog posts on the project website, along with several stand-alone pieces linked to presentations at conference and workshops. The researcher created and delivered a new undergraduate module which surveyed the history of political thought in early modern Europe, with a recurrent focus on the concept of moderation. The researcher created and delivered module aimed at secondary school students on the theme of moderation, compromise and civility, in dialogue with the charity The Brilliant Club. The researcher planned and coordinated a major international conference on the theme of moderation in eighteenth century Europe, which ran over the course of two days, was accessible to the wider academic public, and was reported upon on the transnational side H/Soz/Kult. The researcher planned and delivered a series of seminars and lectures at the host institution, which retained core aspects of the project while also broadening these out to achieve wider appeal.
WP1 and WP5 concern the management of the project and the training the research received. Upon completion of the project the researcher has become a more adept teacher, with experience of managing modules for undergraduates and contributing to co-delivered modules and supervising postgraduate students. He has extended his research competency in the history of political thought, into historical research on the twentieth century, and in genuinely interdisciplinary directions. Experience translating individual research into collaborative ventures prepares the researcher for positioning his scholarship in much wider academic and non-academic environments. The researcher has also developed administrative experience, managing this project’s progression and finances, and contributing to the School Research Committee as a standing member. Collectively this suite of experiences and competencies have had a transformative effect on the researcher’s academic and professional skill-set.
This project was conducted during a period of unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. This necessitated ongoing adaptation, in places a reassessment of project priorities, and a recognition of the limits of the possible. Nonetheless, the project has achieved and exceeded its core research objectives, has delivered equivalent outputs as regards communication of that research, and has enabled the researcher to benefit sufficiently from concrete training and development opportunities.
The core research outputs advance understandings of the history of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the eighteenth century and its relationship to a) the enlightenment as a historical and political-philosophical category and b) the broader intellectual sweep of European early modern history. Beyond this, the most impactful outcome of this project will be its proposal and establishment of a research agenda into the history of moderation which is bound up with an interrogation of the relevance of that concept for the current historical moment.
The core research outputs advance understandings of the history of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the eighteenth century and its relationship to a) the enlightenment as a historical and political-philosophical category and b) the broader intellectual sweep of European early modern history. Beyond this, the most impactful outcome of this project will be its proposal and establishment of a research agenda into the history of moderation which is bound up with an interrogation of the relevance of that concept for the current historical moment.