Vincenzo Cuoco was an Italian writer. He is mainly remembered for his Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799. He is a considered one of the precursors of Italian liberalism and the realist school. Cuoco adapted the critique of political rationalism of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre for liberal ends, and has been described as a better historian than either of them. He influenced many subsequent Italian intellectuals, from Ugo Foscolo and Alessandro Manzoni to Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa to Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci.
When the Neapolitan revolution broke out in January 1799, Vincenzo Cuoco strongly supported the new Republican government installed in place of the monarchy of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies; he became secretary to Ignazio Gonfalonieri and was tasked with the organisation of the Volturno Department. Following the reinstatement of the monarchy in June 1799, Cuoco was imprisoned for a few months, his belongings confiscated, and was then forced into exile. He took refuge first in Paris, then in Milan, where he published his main work. He accepted positions in the Repubblica Cisalpina and the Repubblica Italiana, most notably the job of executive editor of the "Giornale Italiano" magazine during the period 1804–1806. His articles in the Giornale spurred Italians towards change in ethics, society, politics, and the economy, in order to make themselves worthy of national independence. During this period, he also wrote his epistolary novel "Platone in Italia", published in 1806).
Back to Naples
In 1806 Vincenzo Cuoco returned to Naples, as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies had been deposed in favour of Giuseppe Bonaparte. He was given significant responsibilities in the public administration, first as Consigliere di Cassazione, then as Direttore del Tesoro ; he distinguished himself as one of the most important councilors of the government of Joachim Murat. He wrote for the magazine Monitore delle Due Sicilie, and founded the Giornale Costituzionale delle Due Sicilie. In 1809, Cuoco also drafted a Progetto per l'Ordinamento della Pubblica Istruzione nel Regno di Napoli", in which he expounded his view of public education as an indispensable tool towards the formation of a common national awareness in the people. In 1808 he was the president of the Accademia Pontaniana. In 1810 he was named Chief of the Provincial Council of Molise and, in 1812, wrote the Viaggio in Molise about his native region. In 1815, after Ferdinand I was restored to the throne following the Battle of Tolentino, Cuoco retired from politics.
Illness and death
After his retirement, Cuoco started to show worrying signs of mental instability. He reportedly destroyed some of his writings, had frequent breakdowns, and became increasingly apathetic and withdrawn from social life. There are no clues as to the exact cause of these symptoms; but whatever the disease was, he died of it in Naples in 1823.
Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799 - Published in 1801 in Milan, where Cuoco was exiled, is a passionate critique of the short-lived republican Revolution, which Cuoco identified as doomed to failure, yet praiseworthy. Cuoco wrote a second edition which was published in 1806 and remains the standard account to this day.
Platone in Italia - Published in 1806 in Milan, this is an epistolary novel in which Cuoco imagines an ancient civilisation that flourished in Southern Italy before the Greek colonisation and yearns for a spiritual rebirth of Italy stemming from its own traditions, and not from foreign influences. This theme would be reprised continually throughout the Risorgimento, most notably by Vincenzo Gioberti.
