La nascita delle Società Geografiche e il processo di formazione dell’Italia unita

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NATION AND THE BIRTH OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES IN ITALY. The article traces the genesis of and the role played by the cultural institutions which pursued the diffusion of geographical studies during the Italian Risorgimento. This brief review also presents a bibliographical survey of the published works regarding the geographical societies from post-unification Italy to the present in the major disciplinary repertoires, with the purpose of presenting a complete historiographic account of the field. Most of the contributions dedicated to the theme have essentially thrown light on those features of the ''national Italian spirit'' that found expression in support of the explorations and colonial initiatives in Africa, thanks also to the work of the geographical societies. The paper, however, aims mainly to follow, in the early activities of the principal Italian geographical associations still in existence today, those aspects relating to the apology of Italian Unification and devoted to the construction of an Italian nation as ''one and indivisible''. At the same time it attempts to focus on the role of some key-figures who engaged in supporting the new ''identity'' of the nation through the circulation of cultural models proposed in the specialized reviews published by the geographical associations.