Il Tessitore. Memoria e usi pubblici di Cavour in età liberale (1861-1915)

The subject is therefore not only Cavour as the idol of moderate Italian liberalism who was long looked to in the attempt to restore the nation's fortunes, but also the ‘national’ Cavour commemorated on the occasion of major anniversaries – his birth, his death, the crucial dates of Unification – and exalted by essays, biographies, and the instrumental publication of letters. To this end, it is also important to examine the street names and, in particular, sculptures, which, numerically inferior to the statues of other italian heroes, are useful to understand the reasons put forward by institutions, town councils and notabilities in favour of a marble or bronze memorial. At the same time, the aim is to determine the extent and level of popularity of Cavour's commemorations that marked the 50-year postunification period by dwelling on anniversaries, the inauguration of busts and monuments, pilgrimages to the family tomb at Santena, major exhibitions, and the creation of the first museums of the Risorgimento. From the context would thus emerge the role played by the family and former collaborators in the posthumous representation of the statesman, placed at the centre of the strategies employed by the cultural world and publicity to bring the character closer to the masses, influencing patriotic languages and rituals. This broad field of investigation also includes the reception by Italian associations and political cultures, which are often territorially connoted. The aim is therefore to highlight, where possible, the relationship between the heterogeneous Catholic, socialist, republican and anarchist milieu and the memory of the Piedmontese statesman, subject to periodic revisions to coincide with anniversaries. Having identified Cavour's death as the beginning of the process of ‘mythologising’, the work follows the entire chronological arc, dwelling on the junctures considered crucial to the study of the phenomenon and choosing the most significant cases that show us its development, especially the public ceremonies, up to the threshold of the Great War. The diachronic perspective assumed in order to follow the phenomenon in its progressive definition (chapters 1-4) is combined with a thematic in-depth study. The final chapter is dedicated to the image of Cavour in its various manifestations: public statuary, street names, portraiture, caricature, patriotic pedagogy of a ‘Deamicisian’ kind, popular culture.