I caratteri della nazione attraverso la "storia d'Italia" di Vincenzo Cuoco

The essay investigates Cuoco’s idea of the history of Italy as the place for the possible formation of a national “conscience”, through which to bring out the geo-anthropological characteristics and the traditions that act as physical causes and moral causes on the factors of the community. Focusing on the objective and persistent elements, Cuoco shows, particularly in the relationship with the ancient world, that if natural and geographical history is one of the criteria on which to base historical reconstruction and understand the characteristics of peoples, it must be combine with the mythical, fable-like and symbolic elements, thematized through the use of Vico’s language and fixed thanks to the identification of «poetic characters».