Sob o signo da dualidade

Joseph de Maistre e a Casa da Sabóia na ‘Era da Revolução Democrática’

Abstract

This article aims to explore the impact exerted by both the French Revolution
and the Napoleonic invasions on the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and
especially the reactions of his famous counter-revolutionary Savoyard
subject, the count Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) to them – first as a
publicist, latter as a statesman (Sardinian ambassador in Russia between
1803-1817). In the manner of the sesquicentennial of the Italian unification
celebrated in 2011, we seek to reconstruct, through the intellectual
testimony of Maistre, some pieces of the intricate mosaic that made up the
unification process of that peninsula, highlighting the identitarian dilemmas
posed by the revolutionary developments in the territories of the House of
Savoy, as well as the importance (certainly indirect and unintended, but not
negligible), for the future outcome of this paradoxical process of unification,
of the counter-revolutionary Savoyard.