Termometri politici: sciences and politics in encyclopedic journals in Naples in the revolutionary and Napoleonic age
Résumé
The paper deals with learned journals in Naples at the end of the 18th century and with their political meaning, especially in relation to the promotion of the Provinces of the Kingdom. The ‘encyclopedia’, the system of organisation of the different sections of knowledge, in the Giornale Enciclopedico (1806-1821) and in other periodicals, reflects political implications, conflicts and tensions in the field of sciences - sciences as intellectual pursuits as well as practices - in the Kingdom of Naples in the years preceding and following the 1799 Revolution. By following the way headings and sections change, it is possible to examine the different patterns of appropriation by individuals and groups acting in the Kingdom - and also following, and indirectly describing, the changes in the wider European classification of sciences and disciplines.