Gli italiani e la Guerra de la Independencia: un’incursione di metodo nelle carte di Princeton del viceré Eugenio

Abstract

Italians and the War of the Spanish Independence: a methodological incursion in the Princeton papers of viceroy Eugenio

This study focuses on a battle fought by the troops of the Reign of Italy during the war of the Spanish Independence in Catalonia. The aim is to discuss why, from a methodological point of view, the sole use of veterans’ memories, especially Antonio Lissoni’s and Camillo Vacani’s writings, is not enough for an accurate reconstruction of facts (even if they are compared with the documents from the Ministero della Guerra fund of the Milan State Archives), due to the varying degree of rhetorical emphasis used by the various authors. In particular, this bias complicates the analysis of military effectiveness and requires comparing all available sources. To this end, the documents from the Beauharnais Collection, stored in the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the University of Princeton (New Jersey) have been used. The peculiarity of this documentary source, which is hardly consulted at all by historians — especially European — is that it contains the point of view of the viceroy, for whom the analysis of military effectiveness was a priority. The study shows that the comparison of all available sources can contribute to trace back their genesis and assess their reliability.

Received: 03-10-2011