This dissertation explores the intersection between scientific practices and political economy from the time of Maria Theresa's and Joseph II's reforms in the Habsburg State of Milan to the Cisalpina and Italian Republics. It is structured in four parts, corresponding to the themes of "appropriations", "technologies", "spaces" and "soils". Each of these parts comprises of two chapters, with the exception of the last one on "soils". Part I, named "Appropriations", explores how the Società Patriotica took on board the practices and debates which originated in the context of French Physiocracy, such as economic milling and the question of the scale of land-holdings, and analyses how they were appropriated to fit the political economy of the State of Milan. Part II, titled "Technologies", takes into account the attitudes of Milanese reformers, public officers and naturalists towards mechanical arts and, in general, towards technology for the achievement of the felicità and utilità pubblica. Part III of the dissertation has been named "Spaces". It focuses on the travels of naturalists Domenico Vandelli, Paolo Sangiorgio and Lazzaro Spallanzani, using them as starting points to examine the significance of natural history practices, such as travelling and collecting, for an understanding of contemporary political economy. Part IV, titled "Soils", examines a series of texts about the management and making of salnitro, showing their relevance in the context of the newly founded Italian Republic. Overall, the thesis aims to acknowledge the complexity, as well as the intellectual debts, of the production of political economy and scientific knowledge in the State of Milan, and pushes forward the debate on the Italian Enlightenment, by opposing those narratives which have represented it as a marginal and peripheral case in the broader and more "international" European Enlightenment.

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This thesis examines the Italian news reports, political debates and histories of the revolt in the Netherlands between 1566 and 1648. Many Italians were directly involved in this conflict and were keen narrators of these wars. Despite this, a systematic study of the Italian interest for the conflict has not yet been undertaken. This thesis argues that the complex political constellation of the Italian peninsula, dominated by the Habsburg monarchy, shaped the Italian news, debates and interpretations of the Dutch Revolt. Chapter one examines the different ways in which news from the Low Countries reached Italian states. It demonstrates that Italian military officers, active on the battlefield in the Netherlands in the Habsburg army, played a crucial role as purveyors of news and opinion on the conflict. The two following chapters study the circulation of political treatises on the Italian peninsula. Chapter two reconstructs the debates sparked by the events in the Low Countries between 1576 and 1577. Chapter three examines the descriptions of the emergence of a new state in the Northern Netherlands and the discourses on war and peace between 1590 and 1609. Chapter four looks into the development of a market for printed news pamphlets and explores the connections between manuscript and printed news. Chapter five studies how news was used by Italian history writers in their contemporary chronicles. It also investigates how these authors celebrated Italian protagonists in the war as Italian and Catholic heroes. The conclusion examines the evolution of all these Italian discourses related to Dutch Revolt.

Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt für die Bildwissenschaften eine methodische Grundlage dar, Kleidung im Bild als Konstruktion zu begreifen und zu interpretieren. Anhand der eindrucksvollen Patronageprojekte der Familie Tornabuoni – einer gerade emporgestiegenen Kaufmannsfamilie im Umkreis der Medici – werden die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von symbolischer Kommunikation in der Florentiner Frühneuzeit untersucht. Unter anderem über Symbole wurde die Position im Gesellschaftsgefüge des unsicheren frühneuzeitlichen Regierungsklimas immer wieder neu hergestellt und von Neuem ausgehandelt. Die gewählte Bildgarderobe ist dafür ein hervorstechendes Beispiel. / The thesis presents an art historical methodology that assesses clothing and its pictorial representations in order to interpret how material culture relates to social construction. Using as an example an impressive patronage project of the Tornabuoni family – a newly rich family of merchants in the circle of the Medici – reveals the possibilities as well as the limitations of symbolic communication through dress in early modern Florence. In addition to outward style, these subtle symbols helped to establish and renegotiate their bearer’s position in the shifting hierarchy of an uncertain political climate. By closely examining Tornabuoni commissions, the thesis demonstrates how clothing is a critical means of understanding social motivations and aspirations.

While scholarship often focuses on how early modern Italians used images in their devotions, particularly in the post-Tridentine era, little attention has been placed upon how laypeople engaged with devotional text during times of prayer and in their everyday lives. Studies of early modern devotional texts have explored their literary content, investigated their censorship by the Church, or concentrated upon an elite readership. This thesis, instead, investigates how ordinary devotees interacted with holy words in their material form, which I have termed ‘material prayers’. Since this thesis developed under the aegis of the interdisciplinary research project, Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home, 1400-1600, it focuses primarily on engagement with these material prayers in domestic spaces. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing from material culture studies, literary history, social and cultural history, and art history, it brings together objects, images and archival sources to illuminate how devotees from across the socio-economic and literacy spectrums accessed and employed devotional text in their prayers and daily life. From holy words, Biblical excerpts, and prayers to textual symbols like the Sacred Monogram of the Name of Jesus, this thesis explores how and why these material prayers were employed for spiritual, apotropaic and intercessory purposes. It analyses material prayers not only in traditional textual formats (printed books and manuscripts), but also those that were printed on single-sheets of paper, inscribed on jewellery, or etched into the structure of the home. To convey how devotees engaged with and relied upon these material prayers, it considers a variety of inscribed objects, including those sanctioned by the Church as well as those which might be questioned or deemed ‘superstitious’ by ecclesiastical authorities. Sermons, Inquisition trial records, and other archival documents have been consulted to further illuminate the material evidence. The first part of the thesis, ‘On the Body’, considers the how devotees came into personal contact with texts by wearing prayers on their bodies. It examines a range of objects including prayers with protective properties, known as brevi, that were meant to be sealed in a pouch and worn around the neck, and more luxurious items of physical adornment inscribed with devotional and apotropaic text, such as necklaces and rings. The second part of the thesis enters the home to explore how the spaces people inhabited and the objects that populated their homes were decorated with material prayers. ‘In the Home’ begins with texts inscribed over the entryways of early modern Italian homes, and then considers how devotees decorated their walls with holy words and how the objects of devotion and household life were imbued with religious significance through the addition of pious inscriptions. By analysing these personal objects and the textual domestic sphere, this thesis argues that these material prayers cut across socio-economic classes, genders, and ages to embody quotidian moments of domestic devotion as well as moments of fear, anxiety and change.