Enlightening Correspondences

Beyond Crime and Punishment: Giacinto Dragonetti and Thomas Paine By: Mariavaleria del Tufo* In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped turn growing discontent with British rule into a powerful argument for American independence. Its attack on hereditary monarchy and its defence of representative government made it one of the most…

The Atlantic Circuit: Franklin, Nollet, Ardinghelli and the Enlightenment Debate on Electricity By Romualdo Gianoli* If there is one thing ideas are simply incapable of doing, it is standing still. They need to circulate, and sooner or later they always find a way, even when an ocean lies in between. That is precisely what happened…

By Amedeo Arena — This biographical essay explores the life of Gaetano Filangieri, from his early intellectual ambitions and personal struggles to his correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. Discover the man behind The Science of Legislation and his lifelong commitment to the happiness of humankind.

By Antonio Trampus – How did Gaetano Filangieri connect the pursuit of happiness with good laws and individual rights? This post traces the Neapolitan thinker’s engagement with the American Revolution and explores why education, liberty, and trustworthy institutions remain essential to public wellbeing.

By Francesca De Rosa — For Gaetano Filangieri, a law was to be judged not by the order it maintained but by the lives it made possible, and in Book IV of the Science of Legislation the path to citizenship began, unexpectedly, with the body. Discover how physical, moral and intellectual education became a public duty in his vision of happiness, and why the questions it raised about health, equality and the limits of state power are still with us.

By Mario Riberi — Painted into the ceiling of the Italian Senate beside Papinian, Irnerius and Machiavelli, Gaetano Filangieri has looked down on Italian lawmakers since the Kingdom of Italy, and they have kept looking up, from the 1875 debate on the death penalty to the 2025 bill on legislative simplification. Discover how a Parliament that never applied his program to the letter keeps borrowing the language of the Science of Legislation to judge its own laws.

By Amedeo Arena — For more than 250 years, a clerical error concealed Domenico Cirillo’s election to the American Philosophical Society under the mysterious name “Professor Famitz.” Discover how a letter linking Naples and Philadelphia helped restore his identity and reveal a forgotten chapter of the transatlantic Enlightenment.

By Alfonso Maria Di Somma — In Cava de’ Tirreni, Gaetano Filangieri found happiness, developed his ideas on education, and continued his dialogue with Benjamin Franklin. Discover how this historic town became a retreat for an Enlightenment thinker whose pursuit of public happiness connected southern Italy with the emerging United States.

By Amedeo Arena — From the Italian thinkers who inspired America’s founders to the Fulbright Program, a shared Enlightenment heritage connects Italy and the United States. Discover how ideas of liberty, equality, and public happiness have sustained a transatlantic conversation for 250 years.

By Patrizia Bernadette Berardi — From Palladio’s villas to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, architecture offers a window onto the shared cultural heritage of Italy and America. Explore how Palladian design found new meaning in the ideals of the American Enlightenment.