The Correspondence between the naturalist Teodoro Monticelli and the diplomat Angelo D’Ambrosio is a representative section of the large number of letters belonged to the scientist now held by the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli “Vittorio Emanuele III”. He was the centre of a vast and prestigious scientific network and earned a world-wide fame among his contemporaries thanks to his studies on Vesuvian activity and it is still considered a pioneer of Vulcanology. His correspondent, D’Ambrosio, was a refined intellectual rather expert in the fields of literature and education, ambassador of the Neapolitan Kingdom in Denmark and Sweden between 1818 and 1821. During the Napoleonic domination (1806-1814) Monticelli played official and unofficial key roles in some of the most important cultural institutions of the Kingdom such as the University and Società Reale. While D’Ambrosio on the other side was in Palermo, with the Borbon Court, and established a particularly close relationship with Leopoldo Prince of Salerno, younger son of the King Ferdinando IV. Notwithstanding, Monticelli and D’Ambrosio shared a deep and long-lasting friendship most probably born in their youth while they both were involved in jacobine experiences. They had also common philanthropic intents and the same mentality, founded on the priority of education and of the scientific culture as an indispensable starting point for the improvement of the condition of life of the common people, economic development of nation and the birth of a new, real civil society. This Mentality arose from Genovesi’s theories and was still common among a large part of moderate meridional intellectuals, mostly members of Società Reale. The central role played by in particular by the diffusion of scientific knowledge represents the very core of this correspondence and shows its deepest, political sense. Intellectuals as Monticelli and D’Ambrosio thought it was aimed to fight ignorance and superstions among population as those two plagues enhanced subjugation of the stronger and richer above the poorer and weaker and consequently promoted a selfish, individualistic and antisocial attitude which represent the antithesis of the civilization process. For those men, in fact, it has to seek a rational, supportive, happy, brotherhood of men where the single’s interest are naturally sacrificed for the happiness of the whole society. In the letters here published this basic idea becomes more and more precise with the time passing and emerges in any topic the two interlocutors deal with among which there are many of the most interesting aspects of the political and cultural life of the Kingdom of Naples and of Europe between the end of the Eighteenth and the first decades of Nineteenth century; for example: intellectual networks and circulation of ideas and of objects, the necessity in Italy to set up a modern language to be used in all Peninsula, the bad management of cultural institutions in Italy and in particular in the Kingdom of Naples, the terrible economic policy of the Bourbon State and the failed attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy in Naples. This book presents just the 44 letters exchanged by Teodoro Monticelli and Angelo D’Ambrosio between 1818 and 1827, but those documents actually catch up and cast the light on a vast network of intellectuals: the international entourage orbiting around the Società Reale and Francesco Ricciardi Conte dei Camaldoli, a kind of alter ego of Monticelli, legal scholar and twice Minister of Justice. A number of famed scientific and political personalities who shared frequent and significative personal and epistolary contacts with those meridional intellectuals, mostly Scandinavian or British, connecting in fact the South of Italy with the western Europe. This correspondence in synthesis shows how the Kingdom of Naples was far from being isolated and describes a complicated system of intellectual exchanges which reached its best moment during the Enlightenment and represented for century the main mean of communication between the educated few among all Europe and sometimes beyond.
Prefazione a "Lettere tra Teodoro Monticelli e Paolo D’Ambrosio", a cura di M. Toscano
Alessia Scognamiglio
2023
Abstract
The Correspondence between the naturalist Teodoro Monticelli and the diplomat Angelo D’Ambrosio is a representative section of the large number of letters belonged to the scientist now held by the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli “Vittorio Emanuele III”. He was the centre of a vast and prestigious scientific network and earned a world-wide fame among his contemporaries thanks to his studies on Vesuvian activity and it is still considered a pioneer of Vulcanology. His correspondent, D’Ambrosio, was a refined intellectual rather expert in the fields of literature and education, ambassador of the Neapolitan Kingdom in Denmark and Sweden between 1818 and 1821. During the Napoleonic domination (1806-1814) Monticelli played official and unofficial key roles in some of the most important cultural institutions of the Kingdom such as the University and Società Reale. While D’Ambrosio on the other side was in Palermo, with the Borbon Court, and established a particularly close relationship with Leopoldo Prince of Salerno, younger son of the King Ferdinando IV. Notwithstanding, Monticelli and D’Ambrosio shared a deep and long-lasting friendship most probably born in their youth while they both were involved in jacobine experiences. They had also common philanthropic intents and the same mentality, founded on the priority of education and of the scientific culture as an indispensable starting point for the improvement of the condition of life of the common people, economic development of nation and the birth of a new, real civil society. This Mentality arose from Genovesi’s theories and was still common among a large part of moderate meridional intellectuals, mostly members of Società Reale. The central role played by in particular by the diffusion of scientific knowledge represents the very core of this correspondence and shows its deepest, political sense. Intellectuals as Monticelli and D’Ambrosio thought it was aimed to fight ignorance and superstions among population as those two plagues enhanced subjugation of the stronger and richer above the poorer and weaker and consequently promoted a selfish, individualistic and antisocial attitude which represent the antithesis of the civilization process. For those men, in fact, it has to seek a rational, supportive, happy, brotherhood of men where the single’s interest are naturally sacrificed for the happiness of the whole society. In the letters here published this basic idea becomes more and more precise with the time passing and emerges in any topic the two interlocutors deal with among which there are many of the most interesting aspects of the political and cultural life of the Kingdom of Naples and of Europe between the end of the Eighteenth and the first decades of Nineteenth century; for example: intellectual networks and circulation of ideas and of objects, the necessity in Italy to set up a modern language to be used in all Peninsula, the bad management of cultural institutions in Italy and in particular in the Kingdom of Naples, the terrible economic policy of the Bourbon State and the failed attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy in Naples. This book presents just the 44 letters exchanged by Teodoro Monticelli and Angelo D’Ambrosio between 1818 and 1827, but those documents actually catch up and cast the light on a vast network of intellectuals: the international entourage orbiting around the Società Reale and Francesco Ricciardi Conte dei Camaldoli, a kind of alter ego of Monticelli, legal scholar and twice Minister of Justice. A number of famed scientific and political personalities who shared frequent and significative personal and epistolary contacts with those meridional intellectuals, mostly Scandinavian or British, connecting in fact the South of Italy with the western Europe. This correspondence in synthesis shows how the Kingdom of Naples was far from being isolated and describes a complicated system of intellectual exchanges which reached its best moment during the Enlightenment and represented for century the main mean of communication between the educated few among all Europe and sometimes beyond.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
