Il mito di Pio IX. Realtà e rappresentazioni di un papa liberale e nazionale in Italia e in Francia (1846-1849)

This dissertation offers a study of the «liberal» and «national» nature attributed to John-Mary Mastai Ferretti, the pope Pius IX, during his first three years of pontificate. Exploiting an heterogeneous mass of sources (archival items, typing and handwritten papers, pamphlets, posters, newspapers, popular engravings and etchings, private letters, journals), this study retraces the origins of the phenomenon since the papal amnisty of 1846; its mixed transformations which come across papal policy, the status of images and devotional practices in 19th century, political as well as religious propaganda, and conspiracy theory besides; finally, its partial dissolution after the revolutions of 1848. Facing the concept of «myth» – a tool uncritically used for a long time to interpret the phenomenon –this study proceeds on questioning this category and it attains to the most operational concept of «emotional investment»: hence the figure of a «liberal» and «national» pope would be the product of a collective work – to whom Pius himself was not extraneous – which was a matter for the theologico-political worries of post-revolutional european society: namely to solve the religious and political dylemmas of modern age, in order to appeasing some ideas which are not logically (and apparently) compatible, such as freedom and order, nationalism and catholic theology. The method choised to investigate this phenomenon is the comparative one: in retracing a plural context (that is a network of sources) between the two sides of Alps, it will be possible to have a more deep knowledge of a great living utopia in the middle of 19th century.