ABSTRACT
In 1857, when the first news of the Indian rebellion crossed the sea and swept the continent, all Europe took an interest in the events that shocked and mesmerised Great Britain. In Italy, as in most other European countries, newspapers and magazines started featuring regular reports of the Indian events just a few months after the uprising had broken out. The uprising was unanimously perceived as a critical phase of British and Indian history, a phase expected to have lasting repercussions on international policy. Apart from the press, which reported the events as they happened, politicians, historians, geographers, political scientists, and members of the newly established School of Oriental Studies engaged repeatedly with the uprising from 1858 onwards and all the way into the following century. 1
