In 1998, the late Professor Carmen M. Radulet organised an international conference, at the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon, about the relations between Portugal and Italy and the Italian presence in Portugal during the 15th-18th centuries. By further developing specific aspects of the economic activity of the Italian community in Lisbon, this conference provided unprecedented information about the Luso-Italian trade and cultural relations.
Since then, further studies have addressed this topic providing an extensive increase of information on the actions of this community in Portugal, broadening the framework of the Portuguese structural reality and contributing to a more comprehensive perspective of national history. By focusing on the nature of the Italian community in Lisbon and how these woven economic networks corporatised cultural contacts, these meetings provide an overview of recent studies while simultaneously look for new interpretations and approaches. As the evolution of this community in Portugal is outlined, changes and persistences will surface from the monitoring of family histories as well as the analysis of its economic, social and cultural path, its actions in networks with multiple connections that extended to overseas territories.
Overlooking the celebrations, in 2011, of the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy, it is interesting to note how the existence of an Italian nation in Portugal, free of patriotic conflicts and confrontations, foreshadows what would be, many years afterwards, the united Italy.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Nunziatella Alessandrini (Red Columnaria)
Mariagrazia Russo (Università della Tuscia)
Gaetano Sabatini (Università Roma Tre)
Antonella Viola (CHAM)
Organised by
CHAM / NOVA FCSH | UAc
Support
CCCM
FCT
UNITUS
SGL
Embaixada de Itália
IIC Lisboa
RC
AERPI
CERM
