The Nuova Antologia The autobiography of the nation
It was the rise of the capital of Florence in 1865, that made it feel necessary for this country to have a cultural political period that would allow an open and qualified debate – beyond parliamentary controversy and the hastiness of the newspapers – about the great issues and problems of a politically united Italy, (only Venice and Rome were missing), but also to become unified in so many other issues. In Florence, the tradition was prestigious. Between 1821 and 1832 the “Antologia” by Gian Pietro Vieusseux, Gino Capponi and Niccolò Tommaseo had contributed – until the censors ordered it to be suppressed – to the formation of the national consciousness, imposing itself on an European level in the battle for the progress of a civil society, for the emancipation of the lower classes, education of the women, training of farmers, the improvement of the economic conditions through savings.
