The Italian historiography about Portugal in the first half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

In the first half of the 19th century, historians from the Italian Peninsula revived the interest in the history of what was at the time the kingdom of Portugal, as it had never happened before. Namely, the political events that took place in the Iberian Peninsula in the 1820-23 triennium, together with the memory of the recent anti-French vicissitudes, clearly contribute (albeit with different attitudes) to arouse Italian interest in that geographic space in general, and in Portugal in particular, leading the most different historians (concerning their education and scientific value) to invade the rugged terrain of the narration of the Portuguese nation. The interest will grow, defining a complex bibliography that follows the historical development of the two areas, until reaching the middle of the century with works of famous authorship and rigorous structuring, which aim to build parallels between history and politics. On the other hand, the ancient history of the Portuguese nation becomes a reference to look at a time when a nation was looking for in the Italian peninsula itself. The following
study aims to offer an overview of the attention given to Portugal by Italian historical studies in the indicated historical period, highlighting the methodological and interpretative problems found in the referenced works,
and profiling the different historiographic perspectives