Books by David Gibbons
Carlo Cattaneo was one of the most prominent Italian intellectuals of the nineteenth century. Kno... more Carlo Cattaneo was one of the most prominent Italian intellectuals of the nineteenth century. Known for his prominent role in the Five Days of Milan uprising in 1848, he combined a vivid intelligence with a reform-oriented mind and a strong civic passion. This volume offers an exhaustive selection of Cattaneo's writings, which cover a wide range of issues and advance highly innovative theories, such as the achievement of republican federalism in Italy and Europe, thought as a principle of political economy, and the psychology of associated mind. The two introductory essays examine how his ideas developed through the time and argue for their enduring vitality. Translated by David Gibbons
"Edited and introduced by Carlo G. Lacaita and Filippo Sabetti
Translation by David Gibbons
Carl... more "Edited and introduced by Carlo G. Lacaita and Filippo Sabetti
Translation by David Gibbons
Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a gifted public intellectual and a leading figure in the republican, democratic current of the Italian Risorgimento. Following the collapse of the 1848 revolts, he took refuge and settled in Switzerland, where he is now regarded as one of Canton Ticino's outstanding nineteenth century figures. He has been hailed variously as "the most profound and versatile intellectual of all the Italian Risorgimento," "the only self-conscious theorist of liberalism in nineteenth-century Italy," "a committed comparativist," and even "the last of the great Encyclopedists, the universal scholar."
From the 1820s to his death, Cattaneo dedicated himself to many theoretical and practical problems of his day. His writings span the fields of economics, history, politics, philosophy, and law, and address topics as diverse as the nature of chemistry, the construction of railways and the study of language and literature. This anthology, which was originally published in Italian in 1922, contains a selection of these writings chosen by the historian and political theorist Gaetano Salvemini, a fierce critic of fascism who was active in organizing the Resistance during his exile in the United States in the 1930s.
These essays constitute perhaps the best introduction to Cattaneo, for they show not only the range of his interests, but also the skill, thoughtfulness and sensitivity he brought to his subjects. At the same time, these disparate writings form a fairly consistent treatise, rendering the volume much larger than the sum of its parts. For it is Cattaneo's great merit to have seldom lost sight of the need to understand how people try to make sense of their world and the possibilities available to advance human progress. In brief, Cattaneo's aim was never just to inform his readers, but to move them to act.
It was this emphasis on action that led to Salvemini's interest in Cattaneo as Mussolini's fascist movement stood at the threshold of power. This collection of essays is thus as much a testament to Cattaneo's enduring legacy as it is a measure of Salvemini's foresight and his commitment to extend a tradition of thought that could serve as a civic philosophy. For as the dark and ominous clouds of fascism loomed on Italy's cultural and political horizon, Salvemini clearly saw how vitally important Cattaneo's enlightened philosophy could be to the public life of democracy."
"David Gibbons provides a working definition of metaphor as it was understood in Dante’s time and... more "David Gibbons provides a working definition of metaphor as it was understood in Dante’s time and, by close readings from the early lyrics to the Paradiso, gives a new, comprehensive account of Dante’s gift for this rhetorical figure. If to be a master of metaphor is, according to Aristotle, a sign of genius — and Dante was known in the sixteenth century as ‘poeta metaforicissimo’ — then Gibbons’s volume goes a long way to explaining a major facet of Dante’s creative brilliance. The heart of the book is an analysis of metaphor in the Paradiso, but the volume also reaches back to Dante’s earliest lyrics and concludes with a look forward to Petrarch’s use of this important device."
Online publications by David Gibbons
Review articles by David Gibbons
Appunti leopardiani - rivista semestrale by David Gibbons
(8) 2, 2014 NUMERO TEMATICO INDICE EDITORIALE Etica animalista ed ecologica in Giacomo Leopardi -... more (8) 2, 2014 NUMERO TEMATICO INDICE EDITORIALE Etica animalista ed ecologica in Giacomo Leopardi -COSETTA VERONESE p. 5 SAGGI Frammenti di un discorso animale -ANTONIO PRETE p. 7 «mirando all'altrui sorte». Aspetti dell'animalità in Giacomo Leopardi -ANDREA PAOLELLA p. 35 Editoriale Appunti leopardiani (8) 2, 2014 Pagina 5
Papers by David Gibbons
Come macrotesto il dialogo prometeico costituisce di per sé un esempio istruttivo della riscrittu... more Come macrotesto il dialogo prometeico costituisce di per sé un esempio istruttivo della riscrittura mitologica leopardiana, operante ad una serie di livelli: dal mito della ribellione umana contro la volontà divina, con tutte le ascendenze classiche del caso, a quello più moderno del buon selvaggio rousseauiano (e non solo). In entrambi i casi si tratta, per Leopardi, di miti intesi come illusioni; ovvero di «larve», come quelle inviate da Giove sulla terra nella Storia del genere umano con c..
The Italianist, 2000
... There has never been any sign of the original sonnet, and the only critic who to my knowledge... more ... There has never been any sign of the original sonnet, and the only critic who to my knowledge has suggested a candidate for Dante's interlocutor here is Gorni, who tentatively proposes the name of Lippo Pasci de' Bardi.13 There can be little doubt that the most remarkable ...
Italian Studies, 2000
Abstract If any credence is to be lent to Tasso's theoretical pronouncements on literary matt... more Abstract If any credence is to be lent to Tasso's theoretical pronouncements on literary matters with regard to his own poetry, the two most significant influences on his use of metaphor were Petrarch and Dante. In his two sets of Discorsi, especially the later Discorsi del poema eroico, Tasso's discussion of what metaphor is and how and when to use it is sprinkled with examples from these two poets. On the whole Petrarch fares better than Dante. Whilst the metaphors used in canto XXXI of the Inferno attract Tasso's approval because they are drawn from something greater to represent something lesser, and whilst Petrarch is censured for using metaphors that are too obscure in ‘Mai non vo' più cantar’ and metaphors that are so extended as to be indistinguishable from allegory in ‘Passa la nave mia’, on many more occasions Tasso is openly critical of the Dantean and appreciative of the Petrarchan models. Almost all of the metaphors which Tasso quotes from the Paradiso, for example, receive censure: Dante's description of the sun as ‘la lucerna del mondo’, he says, ‘ci fe’ quasi sentir l'odor dell'oglio’, and the characterization of St Dominic as ‘l'amoroso drudo de la fede cristiana’ is attacked for being too artificial and cold – both criticisms, incidentally, which Della Casa had levelled earlier on in the century. Meanwhile, most of the Petrarchan examples are received favourably, even the common ‘ridono i prati’ so beloved of rhetorical manuals from antiquity onwards. Such preferences, and prejudices, are unsurprising in a century when Petrarch was fêted for his ‘marvellous’ use of metaphors, and only isolated voices praised Dante as ‘poeta metaforicissimo’. Even if Petrarch's poetry was nothing like as independent of his illustrious predecessor's influence as he would have had his readers believe, for the critic and theorist of the late Cinquecento Dante and Petrarch were competing models of how to use literary language, including metaphor, particularly in the wake of Bembo's authoritative praise of the latter and condemnation of the former.
Lingue Culture Mediazioni - Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal), 2015
The work of William Dalrymple reflects a series of transformations, from straightforward travel w... more The work of William Dalrymple reflects a series of transformations, from straightforward travel writing, through more complex and profound encounters with the places and people of various Eastern nations, in particular India, to what most recently might best be described as narrative history. While such depth would be out of place in tourist discourse, some of itthe historical dimension in particularis unusual even for travel writing. Despite the increasing specialization, however, Dalrymple' s approach has if anything become less elitist in nature; he has even been known to offer his services providing guest lectures on Indian history to select tour parties. His choice of history as his preferred method of representation in theory allows his chosen cultures to represent themselves. In practice, however, it tends to result in a reduced emphasis on the other, and the figure of the first-person narrator, ostensibly relegated to the background, proves to be more resilient than anticipated. Possibly the main theme of Dalrymple' s work as a whole is his own cultural development, from callow travel writer to culturally sensitive historical commentator.
The Journal of Modern History, 2009
... The English translation of Paolo Grossi's study of collective property in the ju... more ... The English translation of Paolo Grossi's study of collective property in the juridical consciousness of nineteenth-century analysts has brought to the fore, albeit only too briefly, Cattaneo's contribution to the study of Swiss commons (Grossi 1981, 1922). ...
Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Incontri di Studio
The Italian in which Jessie White Mario’s Vita di Giuseppe Garibaldi is written is “near-native”,... more The Italian in which Jessie White Mario’s Vita di Giuseppe Garibaldi is written is “near-native”, evidence, among other things, of the writer’s own stance in psychological terms. A convinced supporter of her adopted country, Jessie White Mario at no stage renounced her own nationality. In the pages of this volume we hear the echo of a different voice – female, foreign – which adds to and alters the predominantly male and indigenous discourse of the Italian Risorgimento.
The work of William Dalrymple reflects a series of transformations, from straightforward travel w... more The work of William Dalrymple reflects a series of transformations, from straightforward travel writing, through more complex and profound encounters with the places and people of various Eastern nations, in particular India, to what most recently might best be described as narrative history. While such depth would be out of place in tourist discourse, some of it – the historical dimension in particular – is unusual even for travel writing. Despite the increasing specialization, however, Dalrymple’s approach has if anything become less elitist in nature; he has even been known to offer his services providing guest lectures on Indian history to select tour parties. His choice of history as his preferred method of representation in theory allows his chosen cultures to represent themselves. In practice, however, it tends to result in a reduced emphasis on the other, and the figure of the first-person narrator, ostensibly relegated to the background, proves to be more resilient than anticipated. Possibly the main theme of Dalrymple’s work as a whole is his own cultural development, from callow travel writer to culturally sensitive historical commentator.
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Books by David Gibbons
Translation by David Gibbons
Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a gifted public intellectual and a leading figure in the republican, democratic current of the Italian Risorgimento. Following the collapse of the 1848 revolts, he took refuge and settled in Switzerland, where he is now regarded as one of Canton Ticino's outstanding nineteenth century figures. He has been hailed variously as "the most profound and versatile intellectual of all the Italian Risorgimento," "the only self-conscious theorist of liberalism in nineteenth-century Italy," "a committed comparativist," and even "the last of the great Encyclopedists, the universal scholar."
From the 1820s to his death, Cattaneo dedicated himself to many theoretical and practical problems of his day. His writings span the fields of economics, history, politics, philosophy, and law, and address topics as diverse as the nature of chemistry, the construction of railways and the study of language and literature. This anthology, which was originally published in Italian in 1922, contains a selection of these writings chosen by the historian and political theorist Gaetano Salvemini, a fierce critic of fascism who was active in organizing the Resistance during his exile in the United States in the 1930s.
These essays constitute perhaps the best introduction to Cattaneo, for they show not only the range of his interests, but also the skill, thoughtfulness and sensitivity he brought to his subjects. At the same time, these disparate writings form a fairly consistent treatise, rendering the volume much larger than the sum of its parts. For it is Cattaneo's great merit to have seldom lost sight of the need to understand how people try to make sense of their world and the possibilities available to advance human progress. In brief, Cattaneo's aim was never just to inform his readers, but to move them to act.
It was this emphasis on action that led to Salvemini's interest in Cattaneo as Mussolini's fascist movement stood at the threshold of power. This collection of essays is thus as much a testament to Cattaneo's enduring legacy as it is a measure of Salvemini's foresight and his commitment to extend a tradition of thought that could serve as a civic philosophy. For as the dark and ominous clouds of fascism loomed on Italy's cultural and political horizon, Salvemini clearly saw how vitally important Cattaneo's enlightened philosophy could be to the public life of democracy."
Online publications by David Gibbons
Review articles by David Gibbons
Appunti leopardiani - rivista semestrale by David Gibbons
Papers by David Gibbons
Translation by David Gibbons
Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a gifted public intellectual and a leading figure in the republican, democratic current of the Italian Risorgimento. Following the collapse of the 1848 revolts, he took refuge and settled in Switzerland, where he is now regarded as one of Canton Ticino's outstanding nineteenth century figures. He has been hailed variously as "the most profound and versatile intellectual of all the Italian Risorgimento," "the only self-conscious theorist of liberalism in nineteenth-century Italy," "a committed comparativist," and even "the last of the great Encyclopedists, the universal scholar."
From the 1820s to his death, Cattaneo dedicated himself to many theoretical and practical problems of his day. His writings span the fields of economics, history, politics, philosophy, and law, and address topics as diverse as the nature of chemistry, the construction of railways and the study of language and literature. This anthology, which was originally published in Italian in 1922, contains a selection of these writings chosen by the historian and political theorist Gaetano Salvemini, a fierce critic of fascism who was active in organizing the Resistance during his exile in the United States in the 1930s.
These essays constitute perhaps the best introduction to Cattaneo, for they show not only the range of his interests, but also the skill, thoughtfulness and sensitivity he brought to his subjects. At the same time, these disparate writings form a fairly consistent treatise, rendering the volume much larger than the sum of its parts. For it is Cattaneo's great merit to have seldom lost sight of the need to understand how people try to make sense of their world and the possibilities available to advance human progress. In brief, Cattaneo's aim was never just to inform his readers, but to move them to act.
It was this emphasis on action that led to Salvemini's interest in Cattaneo as Mussolini's fascist movement stood at the threshold of power. This collection of essays is thus as much a testament to Cattaneo's enduring legacy as it is a measure of Salvemini's foresight and his commitment to extend a tradition of thought that could serve as a civic philosophy. For as the dark and ominous clouds of fascism loomed on Italy's cultural and political horizon, Salvemini clearly saw how vitally important Cattaneo's enlightened philosophy could be to the public life of democracy."