Risorgimento Italy

Abstract

Abstract The following chapter provides the reader with a brief history of the Italian Risorgimento, the sociopolitical movement that led to the unification of the country in 1870. The importance of Risorgimento ideas and values in the life of Arturo Reghini, who was born only eight years after the birth of the Italian nation, is highlighted and explored, especially through the works of Mario Banti and Denis Mack Smith. An analysis of the main threads of the occult tradition that flourished in nineteenth-century Italy and their impact on Reghini is also attempted, with special relevance given to Freemasonry, Spiritualism, and the occult ideas of Italo/Roman primacy, which blossomed in Naples toward the end of the century and strongly informed Reghini’s worldview. A short excursus on the history of the Vatican State and the Roman question is also attempted, since this event influenced Reghini’s strong anti-clerical stance.