For an archaeology of world exhibitions. The culture of exhibitions in Europe between the Seventeenth and the Nineteenth century.

Abstract

The thesis takes a long-durée perspective on the exhibitionary culture that anticipated the blooming of world exhibitions in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. The analysis recognizes the crucial importance of these events to understand better how international relations are held and shaped from a political, economic and cultural viewpoint. The first chapter enquires about the rise of world exhibitions in the mid-Nineteenth, broadening the overall academic perspective about the factors that contributed to establishing a worldwide “exhibitionary complex” in the mid-Nineteenth century. The second chapter focuses on the two-century period that pre-empted the blooming of global exhibitions. The research question in this case wonders if the label “international” is effective to define the late version of a dispositive whose cultural roots were well established (at least) a couple of centuries before. Throwing back into the previous centuries, the author reassesses the importance of cultural phenomena like the 17th-century theatri di macchine and Wunderkammer or local fairs during the 18th century. The evolution of museums and private exhibitions furtherly provides the author with elements to present a wide expositive tradition relying on the vast commercial and intellectual network of Early Modern Europe. The third chapter specifically deals with a case study about Northern Italy during the early Nineteenth Century. Northern Italy is considered an interesting object of analysis for its being a relevant crossroad between the most advanced continental and Northern Europe and the still backward rest of the peninsula. The text adopts in this case a more peculiar perspective on the analysis of newspapers and reports.