The breach : Ambrosian revolutions

By stepping into the breach of the revolutionary triennio that followed the death of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti on August 13, 1447, and by attempting to repoliticize the narrative of what has been called the "Ambrosian revolution", which is in reality a communal restoration, we seek to articulate the relationship between revolutionary tempo and the rhythms of political ritual. Ambrosian remembrance is the escort discourse of political radicalization. While recourse to the saint does compensate for the failure of princes, the analysis allows us to qualify the false evidence of civic religion through the historiographical test of comparison: with the revolutionary festival as a "transfer of sacrality" and founding rite, with the "stubborn formalism" (Mona Ozouf) of the festive spectacle, with the limits of the interpretation of "civic enthusiasm" (Nicolas Mariot). The lecture proposes a lexicographical analysis of a serial source: the cries(crida et bando, crida et avisamento, crida et notitia) of the Registri Panigarola , and with them the runaway discourse on the endangered republic. In the last cries of the Ambrosian Republic(demonstare la sua fede et amore portano al Stato nostro ambrosiano), we hear not identities, but the intentions of identity, not belonging, but the will to belong. In the breach, a new political language is emerging. This posed a specific problem for the new masters of Milan: how to erase its traces?

Contents

• Georges Duby and composition: projecting a "critical radiance" ahead of the book (Jacques Dalarun)
• An art of rhythm: literary, cinematographic and historiographic models
• Making history visible, at the risk of being carried along by the cadence of a narrative scheme
• We must learn to distrust ourselves
• Stepping into the breach of the revolutionary triennio , 1447-1450
• august 13, 1437, death of Filippo Maria Visconti: reading from Sismondi, Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen Âge (1807-1818)
• The conspiracy of four well-born young men, their heads feverish with the ideal of the Roman republic, but yearning for the Venetian stability of an oligarchic republic
• Communal restoration, Ambrosian revolution: il tempo della sancta libertà
• Invading the homes of the powerful, toppling their equestrian statues: "everything was hollow: power and statue" (Louis-Sébastien Mercier)
• Taking the Castello di Porta Giovia, destruction in the public interest
• Towards the Duomo construction site, a procession of remains
• The Visconti state was indeed a uomo mortale
• What is the Libertas of the humanists?
• Republican ideology in monarchical Italy: an "underground history" (Michelle Riot-Sarcey) of the Quattrocento
• Repoliticizing the narrative of 1447-1450 with Marina Spinelli and Lauro Martines
• Aristocratic then popular: the two phases of the Ambrosian revolution
• Revolutionarytempo , rhythms of political rituality: working the analogy
• Ambrosian remembrance as an escort to political radicalization
• Recourse to the saint compensates for the failure of princes: the false evidence of civic religion and the "dream Athens" of medievalists
• december 7, 1447, December 7, 1448: when political fervor goes beyond the ritual framework of civic celebration
• Contextual cooling: from rite to ceremony
• The historiographical test of comparison: the revolutionary festival as a "transfer of sacredness" and founding rite
• Mona Ozouf and the "stubborn formalism" of the festive spectacle: a social institution
• What is "civic enthusiasm" (Nicolas Mariot): the limits of interpretation
• Acclamatory gesture, intimate conviction: it's the words that catch the fire
• Lexicographical analysis of a serial source: the cries(crida et bando, crida et avisamento, crida et notitia) of the Registri Panigarola
• The "Captains and Defenders of Liberty" and their proclamation policy
• A rousing speech about the endangered republic: "these men of bad condition who desire nothing more than their own servitude and the ruin of their homeland, whom our good patron, our Saint Ambrose, will come to punish as they deserve" (May 2, 1449)
• Ambrosian remembrance and military mobilization: coming to the aid of the heavenly protector
• Justifying fiscal necessity: another inversion of debt
• Civil religion as the sacralization of politics
• From devotion to filiation, from obedience to ambrosianity as a chosen identity
• The last cries of the Ambrosian Republic: demonstare la sua fede et amore portano al Stato nostro ambrosiano
• Not identities, but intentions of identity, not belonging, but the will to belong
• In the breach, the irruption of a new political language
• Erasing the traces?