Rinascimento e Risorgimento o Risorgimento vs Rinascimento? Una vicenda tutta italiana

Throughout the 19th century, the Renaissance-Risorgimento relationship was viewed in a twofold contradictory manner: the cultural grandeur of the Renaissance as the premise for the political redemption of the Risorgimento or the Risorgimento as transcending the political and moral decadence of the Renaissance age. The Author expounds the stance of three particularly representative scholars (Vincenzo Gioberti, Bertrando Spaventa, Francesco De Sanctis), pointing out their different perspectives on the role of figures such as Machiavelli and Giordano Bruno. He concludes by posing the question as to the need to go beyond this national unification standpoint. In his view, the persisting tendency to see Machiavelli as the symbolic figure of the Renaissance in Italy is inadequate and he proposes someone like Lorenzo Vallo or Giovanni Pico della Mirandola as an alternative. They are much closer to Erasmus of Rotterdam, the best expression of the Renaissance at a European level. [Publisher's text].