Abstract

Integrating Digital Humanities and traditional scholarship with a marked investment in public engagement, this project aims to restore “The Liberal: Verse and Prose from the South”, a major document in Anglo-Italian relations and European liberal culture, to the scholarly community and the wider public.

“The Liberal” was the groundbreaking periodical published in London in 1822-23 but edited in Pisa and Genoa by a group of intellectuals led by Leigh Hunt and including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley. Well-known among Romantic-period scholars, it is a crucial document in the history of political-cultural liberalism and Anglo-Italian intercultural contacts, as well as the place of publication of several important literary works (e.g., Byron’s "The Vision of Judgement" and William Hazlitt’s "My First Acquaintance with Poets").

However, much of its full potential as a resource remains unfulfilled because there is no scholarly edition available; critical studies are either outmoded or too selective; and no comprehensive contextualizing work has yet been undertaken to reconstruct its position in 1820s culture in Britain and Italy. To revitalize and enhance this essential document on its bicentennial anniversary, this project pools the skills of a group of Italian scholars of English and British literature to provide the research community with a scholarly electronic edition and new critical investigations.

Concurrently, it offers a wide range of public engagement activities aimed at offering instruments and (online and in-person) cultural experiences that may enhance awareness of Italian history and transnational cultural connections. Indeed, the project is informed by the principles outlined in HEU CLUSTER 2 (CULTURE, CREATIVITY AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY) and NationalRecovery and Resilience Plan (Mission 1: Digitisation, Innovation, Competitiveness and Culture), with special attention to people-centred participation, fostering a sustainable and inclusive understanding of cultural heritage and its relationship to communities and society, and promoting access to and participation in cultural heritage through innovative approaches, new and emerging technologies, including digitisation and increased cultural literacy.

“Reviving The Liberal” aims to produce long-term transformative outcomes both within the discipline and for wider audiences, as a way of engaging with ideas and principles still central to literary-cultural and socio-political debates at a national and international, especially European, level.