Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily was a place of multiple cultural contaminations and commercial exchanges throughout the early modern era. Trade, piracy, and even slavery implemented continuous contacts between populations from opposing shores, regardless of their different religious beliefs. Yet, the island was also intended as a Christian bulwark against the Islamic world and its institutions fostered anti-Muslim prejudices. To date, this discrepancy has been little investigated, but the responsibilities of art in fueling discriminatory attitudes have been explored even less. Drawing on Francisco Bethencourt’s idea that racism is motivated by political projects, this paper illustrates the complicity of art in reinforcing prejudices for political interests. To do so, it explores the 1725 frescoes by the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans (1670–1744) in the church of the Forty Martyrs and Saint Ranieri of the Pisan Nation, in Palermo. In the face of persistent multiculturalism in the daily life of the population, these frescoes affirmed the supremacy of Pisa as a victorious guardian of Christianity in the Mediterranean. In this way, they celebrated the urban nobility of Pisan descent, while disguising the problematic identity of its enemy.
This article illustrates the outcomes of research aimed at investigating traineeship programmes established in Southern Italy before the Unification as forerunners of the professional education courses that would later develop across the nation. Specifically, the investigation focuses on those charitable institutions whose aim was to educate abandoned children to fit into civilised society through professional training – in line with a model of social recovery through practical education. In particular, this paper explores the connection between each manufacturing sector and its corresponding educational programme. The most relevant training programmes in Molise – supported by legislative, archival and bibliographical documentary – will be analysed through reconstruction of the political debate of the time, which revolved around establishing «protected housing» that also served as centres of industry. To this end, particular attention will be paid to Campobasso’s Orphanage and «Pious house of labour» (Casa pia di lavoro) respectively founded during the French Decade and shortly before the 1848 Revolution. The historical framework is provided by the turbulent events of that time, and we focus in particular on the interdependent relationship between political economy, school and welfare, in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the complex relationship between education, social welfare and manufacturing before Italian Unification.
RIASSUNTO Il contributo vuole illustrare i risultati della ricerca, tutt’ora in corso, sull’edilizia scolastica in Italia durante il fascismo emersi dall’analisi delle fonti archivistiche e a stampa recuperate presso diversi archivi e biblioteche nazionali e regionali. Dopo una rapida analisi dello stato dei lavori della storiografia storico-educativa italiana sul tema, il contributo mirerà a delineare la fisionomia degli spazi scolastici voluti dal regime che era funzionale all’attuazione di una politica educativa finalizzata alla creazione di un’Italia fascista. Il tema, sviluppato lungo una direttrice nazionale, cercherà di evidenziare i momenti di maggiore tensione della campagna edilizia promossa dal regime fascista che raggiunse i risultati più alti durante il dicastero di Giuseppe Bottai.
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