ABSTRACT
The role of science in historiographical debates about the origins of the modern Italian nation-state and its relationship to the Catholic Church has frequently been misrepresented in the existing literature. The relationship between the national “Bruno” and Bruno the critical theologian remained unclear. The narratives developed during the nineteenth century continued to inform historical writing in the twentieth century, notably the works of Croce and Cantimori. Since at least the mid-nineteenth century Italian historiography has been shaped by disputes about the condition of the Italian nation and the means by which it could be reformed and regenerated. During the same period, a circle of young scholars in Naples was developing an alternative means to achieve national unity. The years 1848–1849 witnessed the outbreak of revolutions across Europe. Spaventa maintained, however, that Italy did not benefit from these modernizing habits of thought because, from the mid-sixteenth century, the Catholic Church began to restrict intellectual liberty.
