Education serving politics

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The contamination by Habsburg Lombardy, however, stopped with the acceptance of the normal method. The promotional content of textbooks continued to be marked by their perfect concordance with governmental guidelines.

The compliance of the scholastic authors and educational texts towards the official pedagogy is proven by the explicit references to government guidelines contained in the grammars and texts for language teaching.

In interesting case is the anonymous Secondo libro di letture per le scuole elementari (Turin, Stamperia Reale, 1840).

In the part which outlines to the young reader the most common professions, inviting the pupil to "esaminare bene se stesso per conoscere a quale si senta più inclinato" [look deep inside yourself to find out to which you feel more inclined], specifying that "nessuna professione conviene meglio ad un figliuolo quanto quella del padre" [no profession suits a son better than that of father].

This was exactly the same reason why Taparelli D’Azeglio had reserved the study of Latin and therefore the possibility of accessing higher education degrees, only for children from wealthy families, reserving other vocational training for the others.

The presence of political contents was particularly evident in textbooks for other disciplines, including those of national history.

They represented a major new approach in Piedmont, given that until the Revolution, the discipline was limited to antiquity. In the decades immediately after the Restoration three textbooks were published in the Kingdom of Sardinia:

1. Luigi Cibrario, Notizie storiche sopra la storia dei Principi di Savoia date dall’avvocato Luigi Cibrario ad uso delle scuole del Regno di Sardegna, Turin, by Alliana e Paravia, 1825;

2. Gustavo Paroletti, Storia della R. Casa di Savoia dalla sua origine sino ai giorni nostri, in dimande e risposte, per Gustavo Paroletti, opera adorna di ritratti, Turin, at fratelli Reycends e Comp., 1834;

3. Francesco Lanteri, Storia della Monarchia di casa Savoia, approvata dall’eccellentissimo Magistrato della Riforma, per uso delle regie e pubbliche scuole, Turin, by the Stamperia Reale, 1835. The author says “onorato di questa difficile incumbenza" [honoured by this difficult task] which implied the fact that he had been instructed by the Magistrate.

As appears evident from their titles, what distinguished the new history texts was the fact that the sovereigns of the House of Savoy and not their kingdom were placed at the centre of the narrative.

As stated explicitly by Paroletti, “non vi è studio più necessario ai giovani che quello della storia dei loro Principi, e del paese che gli vide nascere, sia perché valgono queste nozioni a vieppiù far crescere quell’amore di patria di cui per natura sta il germe in cuore dell’uomo, sia perché l’esempio dato da coloro cui il destino volle affidare i troni è il mezzo più efficace onde inspirare in ogni classe quell’amore alla cosa pubblica, che ben diretto, è il vero vincolo della civile società” [there is no more necessary study for young people than that of the history of their Princes, and of the country that witnessed their birth, because these concepts are all the more important for developing a love of country which by nature is planted the heart of men, and because the example given by those to whom fate wishes to entrust the thrones is the most effective means which inspires in each class that love for the public, which when well managed, is the real bond of civil society]¹⁵.

For this reason, the narration was centred on the figures of monarchs and on events, most of them wars that had marked their kingdom, with the objective of presenting the times as a new golden age, after a period of extreme decadence which coincided with the French occupation.

A textbook of Italian and not just Savoy history did not appear until 1846, when Della storia d’Italia by Cesare Balbo (son of Prospero) began to be adopted in schools. It was not considered a book for teaching, but was widely used until the Italy's unification as a teaching text¹⁶.  

¹⁵ Gustavo Paroletti, Storia della R. Casa di Savoia dalla sua origine sino ai giorni nostri, in dimande e risposte, per Gustavo Paroletti, opera adorna di ritratti, Turin, by fratelli Reycends e Comp., 1834, p. XII.

¹⁶ Cesare Balbo, Della storia d’Italia, Sommario, Turin, Pomba e C., 1846.

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