Spatial identities in the nineteenth century

We have drawn our attention to the historiographies of Venice written in that city in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and have offered to read Venice as a synecdoche for Italy. It was Venice’s very uniqueness and specificity that made it possible to exploit it as a case study: it was revealing to consider the most distinctive as the most typical. Our objective was to explore the relationship between different sorts of spatial identity as reflected in historical texts; in particular, we wanted to show that the local did not necessarily stand in opposition to the national during a period of national unification and consolidation. The various phases we have identified within Venetian historiography show how the field of historical studies was used for debates and constructions of spatial identities. In reality, the main narrative changed little, but the interpretations drawn from it followed very diverse paths, and the key concepts used proved highly polysemic and flexible, allowing change within an apparent continuum. Many tropes dear to the Risorgimento canon were hardly found in Venetian historiography, which presented a very singular model: but this singularity was considered as a strength at the service of «Italianness» and gave a powerful example of what Italians were able to do