Ricerc@Sapienza

In this paper I deal with the first philhellenic documents, appearing in Italy in the 1770’s, and I attempt to highlight their particularity and their characteristics. More specifically, I examine texts such as Voti dei greci all’Europa cristiana [1771], Componimenti poetici di varj autori in lode di Caterina II [1771], Componimenti poetici di varj autori in lode di Sua Eccellenza il signor conte Alessio Orlow [1772] in relation to the historical events of that period and also to the specific goals of their authors. Finally, I propose a new periodization of the first period of Italian philhellenic movement that dates its beginning in the 1770’s, in contrast to previous approaches that are based on Elena Persico’s position according to which the first sample of philhellenic text in Italy was published in 1787 as the result of (mainly French) travel literature of the 1780’s and the Neoclassical movement of the time.