Date/Time
Friday, September 22, 2023–Saturday, September 23, 2023
10:00 am PDT – 5:30 pm PDT
Location
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2520 Cimarron Street
Conference organized by Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach, and Sabrina Ferri, Independent Scholar
Co-sponsored by the Clorinda Donato Center for Global Romance Languages and Translation Studies, California State University, Long Beach
Born out of an extraordinary confluence of talent in the socio-political context of Habsburg Lombardy, Il Caffè (1764–66) was a short-lived but wide-ranging periodical, which would prove to be one of the most original and influential intellectual products of the Italian Enlightenment. The journal, which owed its title to English coffee houses and to the invigorating virtues of coffee, was the product of a collective effort involving a group of young people. Most of them had been members of the Milanese Accademia dei Pugni, a think-tank of intellectuals including Pietro and Alessandro Verri and Cesare Beccaria. Inspired by the Spectator and by the Encyclopédie, the contributors wrote on the most disparate aspects of cultural, social, and political life: from agriculture to natural history, from aesthetics to medicine. The journal is a unique incarnation of the ideals of the Republic of Letters. The ideas of the authors of Il Caffè traveled far and wide, reaching well beyond the geographical and chronological limits of Habsburg Lombardy. By promoting a collective discussion on Il Caffè and its global impact, this conference aims to showcase the transnational and trans-ideological nature of the eighteenth-century Republic of Letters, to trace the global movement of ideas, and to explore the tensions and exchanges between the centers and peripheries of the Enlightenment. This conference will bring together scholars across the disciplinary spectrum to engage in a rich dialogue, both bringing attention to local cultural and socio-political contexts, and looking at Il Caffè as an original product of and contribution to the network of multifarious discourses that shaped the global Enlightenment.
Speakers
Shane Agin, Duquesne University
Philippe Audegean, Sorbonne Université
Lidia De Michelis, Università degli Studi di Milano and Lia Guerra, University of Pavia
Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach
Sabrina Ferri, Independent Scholar
Gianmarco Gaspari, University of Insubria, Varese-Como
Lavinia Maddaluno, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Rebecca Messbarger, Washington University
Pierre Musitelli, École Normale Supérieure, Paris
Francesca Savoia, University of Pittsburgh
Gisela Schlüter, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Romanistik
Friday, September 22, 2023
9:30 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration
10:00 a.m.
Bronwen Wilson, University of California, Los Angeles
Director’s Welcome
Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach
Sabrina Ferri, Independent Scholar
Opening Remarks
10:15 a.m.
Panel 1: The Pursuit of the Public Good in Il Caffé
Chair: Thomas Harrison, University of California, Los Angeles
Lidia De Michelis, Università degli Studi di Milano and Lia Guerra, Università di Pavia
“’Cose tutte dirette alla pubblica utilità‘: Reconfiguring the ’Pleasures‘ of the Imagination in the Lombard Enlightenment”
10:45 a.m.
Gianmarco Gaspari, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Varese-Como
“ll Caffè as a Project for the Enlightened City” [Remote Presentation]
11:15 a.m.
Philippe Audegean, Sorbonne Université
“Books and Law in Il Caffè”
11:45 a.m.
Discussion
12:15 p.m.
Lunch
2:00 p.m.
Panel 2: Il Caffè: A Transnational Republic of Letters
Chair: Isabelle Kelman, California State University, Long Beach
Pierre Musitelli, École Normale Supérieure, Paris
“When the Philosophes Translated the Italian Enlightenment into French: The Case of Il Caffè and Other Works from the Accademia dei Pugni”
2:30 p.m.
Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach
“’Like bringing clay pots to Samos, owls to Athens, or crocodiles to Egypt‘: Il Caffè and the Estratto della letteratura europea”
3:00 p.m.
Discussion
3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break
4:00 p.m.
Panel 3: Il Caffè as a Network of Ideas, People, Practices, and Products
Chair: Viola Ardeni, Sacramento State University
Shane Agin, Duquesne University
“Il Caffè, Smallpox, and the Communicable Spread of the Enlightenment”
4:30 p.m.
Lavinia Maddaluno, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice
“Travels, Plants and Machines: Material Practices of Emulation from Il Caffè to the Società Patriotica”
5:00 p.m.
Discussion
5:30 p.m.
Reception
Saturday, September 23, 2023
9:30 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration
10:00 a.m.
Panel 4: Advancing the Enlightenment in Il Caffè
Chair: Carole Paul, University of California, Santa Barbara
Gisela Schlüter Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Romanistik
“The Motif of Contemporaneity in Il Caffè” [Remote Presentation]
10:30 a.m.
Rebecca Messbarger, Washington University
“Embodying the Enlightenment in the Age of Il Caffè”
11:00 a.m.
Discussion
11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:45 a.m.
Panel 5: “Il piacere di scrivere”: Style and Narrative Techniques in Il Caffè
Chair: Susan Carlile, California State University, Long Beach
Sabrina Ferri, Independent Scholar
“Piccoli racconti, dialoghi and seri ragionamenti: A Polyphony of Literary Genres in Il Caffè”
12:15 p.m.
Francesca Savoia, University of Pittsburgh
“Il Caffè (1764-1766): Narrative Strategies and Framing Techniques”
12:45 p.m.
Discussion
1:15 p.m.
Program concludes
The conference is free to attend with advance registration. It will be held in-person at the Clark Library and livestreamed on the Center’s YouTube Channel. In-person registration will close on Monday, September 18 at 5:00 p.m. No registration is required to watch the livestream. Seating is limited at the Clark Library; walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits.
Composite Image: Frontispiece of the second edition of Il Caffè (1766), public domain. Antonio Perego, L’Accademia dei Pugni, 1766, oil on canvas, public domain. Images courtesy of Professor Sabrina Ferri.