The Nature of the Risorgimento

Following Italy’s unification in 1861, the new state faced the complex task of achieving political, administrative and cultural cohesion, which also required a unified body of knowledge about the national territory and its natural environment. This book explores how knowledge of Italian nature was produced, circulated, and institutionalised in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as part of the broader nationbuilding project, and how it contributed to the symbolic and material construction of the nation. Scientists played a crucial role in articulating a naturalistic unity of the peninsula, mapping its resources, and defining the idea of a distinct ‘Italian’ landscape. Through a critical analysis of scientific practices, actors, and institutions, the study reveals how Italian nature served as a symbol of national identity, an instrument of political legitimacy, and a means of shaping and consolidating a shared vision of Italy as Il Bel Paese – an image that remains deeply embedded in the country’s cultural imagination today.