Book in Italian.

Hardback edition, size 17 x 25 cm, I-XXI, 506 pp. Edizioni Valdonega 1955.

The eighteenth century has by now been guaranteed an important place in the history of Italian culture, as a time of great zeal, great talent and noble ideas. And in the history of eighteenth-century Italy, Verona, with its ranks of erudite men, shines brighter than almost every other city. We can name Francesco Bianchini, A. Torresani, E. Noris, Ottavio Alecchi, G. C. Becelli, L. Salvi, G. F. Muselli, Antonio Tirabosco, Girolamo Pompei, G. G. Dionisi, Girolamo Spolverini, B. Lorenzi, G. B. Biancolini, G. Torelli, A. M. Lorgna, A. Balestra, Giambettino Cignaroli, I. Pindemonte and most especially, Scipione Maffei, the inspiration behind it all.
It was a wonderful time of ideas, controversies and debates in every field, whether historical, artistic, political or scientific.
This book by Gaetano Gasperoni, worthy and well-known scholar of eighteenth-century Italy who, as he liked to say, gave his whole life to it, coordinates the century of “Veronese beauty” and finally looks beyond the simple local and provincial events to examines its relationship with Italian and European culture. With this decision, Gasperoni shows his greatness, finding its natural order and internal equilibrium, its reasoning and motives.
This work has indisputable historical and documentary value thanks to the skilful use of sources (the author spent years delving into the city libraries of Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona, Padua, Brescia, etc.) and the new material that enriches it. This book definitively establishes the weight and significance of eighteenth-century Verona in the history of Italy and of Europe.