From January 28 to 30, 2026, Rome will host the international conference L’editoria italiana all’estero nel Risorgimento (1796 – 1870) (“Italian Publishing Abroad during the Risorgimento (1796–1870)”), dedicated to the transnational history of Italian books, newspapers, and print culture beyond the Italian peninsula during the long nineteenth century.
Organized within the framework of the PRIN 2022 research project “An idle question”? Ripensare e commentare la letteratura del primo Ottocento (“An idle question”? Rethinking and commenting on early-nineteenth-century Italian literature), the conference brings together scholars from Europe and North America to examine how Italian-language publishing operated across borders, often under conditions of exile, censorship, and political repression.
Across three days of panels and discussions, the conference explores the circulation of Italian print culture in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, the Mediterranean, Latin America, and the United States. Particular attention is given to the role of publishing as a tool of political education, revolutionary activism, cultural mediation, and the construction of diasporic and ethnic identities.
One of the conference sessions focuses on the United States and the early Italian ethnic press, including New Orleans and the Gulf South. Dr. Brera’s paper Dalle barricate a Bourbon Street: Il Monitore del Sud (1849) e l’educazione alla rivoluzione a New Orleans (“From the Barricades to Bourbon Street: Il Monitore del Sud (1849) and Revolutionary Education in New Orleans”) examines one of the earliest Italian-language newspapers published in the United States, situating it within the broader history of Risorgimento exile politics, education and Italian diasporic print culture.
By foregrounding books, newspapers, printers, editors, and readers, the conference highlights the central role of publishing in shaping transnational Italian political and cultural networks well beyond national borders.
Conference Program
