Europe’s boundaries have mainly been shaped by cultural, religious, and political conceptions rather than by geography. This volume of bilingual essays from renowned European scholars outlines the transformation of Europe’s boundaries from the fall of the ancient world to the age of decolonization, or the end of the explicit endeavor to “Europeanize” the world.From the decline of the Roman Empire to the polycentrism of today’s world, the essays span such aspects as the confrontation of Christian Europe with Islam and the changing role of the Mediterranean from “mare nostrum” to a frontier between nations. Scandinavia, eastern Europe and the Atlantic are also analyzed as boundaries in the context of exploration, migratory movements, cultural exchanges, and war. The Boundaries of Europe, edited by Pietro Rossi, is the first installment in the ALLEA book series Discourses on Intellectual Europe, which seeks to explore the question of an intrinsic or quintessential European identity in light of the rising skepticism towards Europe as an integrated cultural and intellectual region.

Coppa provides the first full-length study of Giacomo Antonelli, friend and advisor to Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono) and his Secretary of State and chief minister from 1849 to 1876. Based on the documents of the secret Vatican Archives, and neglected family papers in the State Archive in Rome, the book gives an important reevaluation of this key diplomatic figure, separating the man from the myth and delving into his character and policies. The book examines both the personality and policies of the Cardinal, who was seen to be the Pope’s Richelieu and Mazarin combined. Confronting the polemical literature which has charged him with sexual misconduct and venality, the study examines his early formation and career, the inspiration for his European policies, his relationship to Pio Nono, and the part he played in the Counter-Risorgimento and the Papal reaction. By improving our understanding of Papal, Italian, and European developments during these crucial decades, this study provides new insights into Rome’s fortress mentality and its rejection of the main currents that were transforming western life— currents that influenced not only the Catholic Church but European society as a whole.

The war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire for possession of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania was a crucial event both for Italian domestic and foreign policy and for the contemporary European balance of power. For Italian society the Libyan conflict was in many ways a dress rehearsal for the First World War. The propaganda campaign for the occupation of Libya, orchestrated around the myth of the “Grande Italia” and the “Grande proletaria” had an important impact on the Italian political system, even more than the military operations, testing its stability and leading to violent debate not only between the parties, but also inside the parties themselves. The essays brought together in this book illustrate the attitude of the political forces that were the main supporters of the Italian intervention in Libya, and the international context in which the war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire came about. Using new sources or re-reading the sources already known with the insight gained from the passage of a hundred years, the authors reflect on a conflict that had profound repercussions for Italian and European politics and contributed to ending the Belle Époque, raising in the minds of both the Italian and European public the specter of a new war in Europe.

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