JOSEPH ADDISON E L'ITALIA

This book focuses on the ideological project started by Addison during his Grand Tour. The first part is dedicated to reconstruct the literary tradition connecting the cities of Rome and London through their common Trojan origins. The rest of the book follows the development of Addison’s project from his travel to Italy to its accomplishment in London. From the desert of corruption, superstition, intolerance and misery observed in early 18th-century Italy, Addison recovers the ancient Roman tradition still preserved by the small republics of Lucca and San Marino. These could no longer successfully oppose the spreading of Catholic and absolutist devastation, but were seen as capable of handing down their heritage to a worthy successor: the Hanoverian king of England, George I. Addison’s project is indeed completed on the London stages, where the stoical hero of his tragedy “Cato” before dying entrusts Juba with the moral patrimony of Roman virtues, in view of the fact that whoever follows the Roman example, even a foreign king, is worth being considered a Roman.

Il Grand Tour di Joseph Addison (1672-1719) inaugura il progetto ideologico analizzato in questo libro. Dal deserto della tirannide e del cattolicesimo post-tridentino che inaridiscono l’Italia, Addison recupera i valori e le virtù della romanità repubblicana, tenuti ancora in vita in poche città italiane. Sulla base di una consolidata tradizione letteraria che lega Roma a Londra nel nome della discendenza dall’antica Troia, Addison individua nell’Inghilterra protestante uscita dalla “gloriosa rivoluzione” l’erede legittima della libertà e del diritto universali. Il momento culminante di tale operazione si realizza a teatro con la tragedia “Cato”: prima di morire l’eroe stoico consegna il testimone della “romanitas” a Giuba, figura di Giorgio I Hanover, perché anche un re straniero che osservi la “virtus” può dirsi romano.