Nuove prospettive degli studi economici sull'Illuminismo lombardo

After the Second World War, there has been an intense flourishing of studies in Italy on the Enlightenment and on the Italian Enlightenment in particular. This has been a response to the emerging need for deeper research on the roots of western culture and on the civic values of our societies so much shattered by the traumatic experiences of a new kind of war savaging our cities in Europe and in other parts of the world. Political economy – originally called Civil economy in 18th century Naples – was indeed prominent historically, although that historical fact has only been imperfectly reflected in much of the recent historiography. There is, however, a new line developing line of research on the Enlightenment based on the Political economy of the time. A Conference sponsored by the Istituto Lombardo has been focussed precisely on the Political economy (theory and policy) so prominent especially in the case of the Lombard Enlightenment. The present contribution mainly reflects the historico-analytic canon in the Schumpeterian sense. That implies that the analysis touches on different historical periods and is aimed at bringing out those research strands that contribute to the constructions of the identity of the Italian tradition of economic thought and analysis.